The Coveted
by mellowenglishgal
Summary: Newgirl Lilah comes from England. Weird things start happening when she's around. Considering she hangs with Reid, that's not so special. But he's not making the things happen. She's the one calming him down, making him think like Caleb couldn't. Rated M
1. Lilah

**Disclaimer:** If I could, I'd have the male cast chained to my bed to do with as I pleased…So I don't own them, just in case you didn't know.

**Author's Note**: I've decided Caleb was born after the school cut-off date for enrolment and that's why his eighteenth occurs in the fall of his _junior_ year rather than senior. This FanFic is set in their senior year.

* * *

"Let's drop in."

Reid laughed as the wind rushed up to meet him, his senses going crazy as nature enveloped him and brought him safely to the bottom of the cliff. Although he didn't like them Using on a whim for fun stuff, no matter how little, Caleb was keen not to provoke any of them, especially Pogue recently—though he and Tyler still had to wait till the spring until their birthdays to Ascend—into using their powers.

Reid had to confess he still cringed at the thought of what Caleb's dad had looked like the last time he saw William before he died. He'd never let on to the boys—least of all Caleb.

Caleb dropped down soundlessly beside him and Tyler grinned as he crouched, poised like a big-cat and straightened up. The party was already raging on the beach, the flares burning, the lights of trucks giving light to the sandy dance-floor, the fire creating a nice area for couples to grope in relative darkness, while one truck had the bed filled with coolers and a keg. Fast-paced music pounded from the huge speakers as the DJ flipped records. Reid grinned, ready to party, scouting potentials.

"Do you guys see Pogue?" Caleb asked, dark eyes scanning the beach. Reid could pick up Prettyboy anywhere. He was by the fire, dancing—no, _grinding_—with a black-haired girl he'd never seen before, and was immediately interested in because of the way she was so uninhibited around Pogue. Any girl who didn't stand drooling or try to get into his pants was probably brave enough to stand up to Caleb or get bashful Tyler to interact. She wasn't like the other girls on the beach, who were decked out in expensive Fifth Avenue fashions and Tiffany diamonds, sundresses over bikinis; she wore a black cardigan, low-cut, button-down, with a tie around the waist, and a pair of relaxed, faded denim jeans that were so old they were wearing thin around the knees and crotch. Hair loose and tousled, her grin as she danced and laughed aloud with Pogue wide and glittering in the firelight, she seemed to Reid to be the life of the party.

Of course, it was weird seeing Pogue grin, too. Since Kate had broken it off with him during the summer so she could go to UCSB, Pogue had been a complete basket-case. The guys all exchanged a look, impressed, both by the girl and the effect she had on Pogue. Since July, they'd all been really careful not to set Pogue off. Since his Ascension he had been teetering on the edge with a real short fuse. Reid in the lead for once, the three strode over the sandy embankment down a gentle slope to the set of people who weren't quite a group, standing two or three and talking awkwardly.

"Hey man," Caleb said lazily, a white-toothed grin revealed as he smiled at the girl as she and Pogue separated their hips. The girl smiled bashfully and tucked a strand of natural black hair behind her ear, which was pierced multiple times with tiny silver hoops, and a ring-and-ball tragus piercing.

"Guys!" Pogue grinned, knocking knuckles with them. "Hey, I want you to meet Lilah Shakespeare. She's Sarah's new roommate. She just moved here from England. Lilah, this is Caleb Danvers, Tyler Simms and Reid Garwin. They're all tools, so don't bother with 'em."

"Hey!" the boys yelled indignantly, and while Caleb laughed, Reid was first to dash at their second-in-command, Tyler on his tail. Laughing, he shrugged them off and Reid fell into place beside Lilah. Lilah—_pretty name_, he thought—unfolded the slender arms clamped defensively over a rather—_whoa_!—huge chest and stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans. Lilah was suddenly bashful and blushed at them prettily. He glanced at Tyler, whose eyebrows rose, though he was the politer of the two and had long ago trained himself not to stare at girls' breasts or asses too long. The memory of a bitch-slap several years ago still served him well.

"Whereabouts in England did you live?" Tyler asked interestedly. Reid frowned intensely at her, picking out every detail of her face.

"Well, we have a house in Knightsbridge—in London—and my dad's family has an estate in Hampshire," Lilah said shyly. "I went to school in London."

"You're going to be bouncing off your goddamn walls here," Pogue said crabbily, and she gave him an eye-roll and a smile.

"Someone forgot to take his Midol this morning," Reid teased, and Pogue glowered threateningly. Lilah's mouth twitched amusedly.

"Actually, I like it here," Lilah smiled. "Well, I liked the scenery from the airport this afternoon. It reminds me of home." Reid paid attention to her voice. He loved that she actually pronounced the _t'_s in words and didn't slur.

"You just flew in?" Tyler's eyebrows rose again. That was his habit. Reid rolled his eyes. But he had to admit—he'd seen Tyler after a flight, and his mother—Lilah looked _damned_ good for a girl suffering jetlag. "Aren't you tired?"

"Yeah, but if I go to sleep now, I'll be up again at three o'clock," Lilah laughed, and she flashed lovely white teeth. He thought all English people had bad dental hygiene. _All Americans are obese_, he reminded himself. Stereotypes were stupid. It was like saying because Caleb looked dark and scary, he really was. Besides Tyler, Caleb was the most thoughtful guy—person—Reid knew. He was definitely the most controlled.

"Don't worry. I won't let you fall asleep. I'll just keep pestering you and pestering you," Reid grinned. He liked this girl, he didn't know why. Perhaps the fact she didn't bleach her hair or starve herself and she wasn't supremely self-confident set her aside from the Spenser private-school daddy's girls partying drunkenly around them. He grabbed her hand and surprised a laugh out of her as he tugged her encouragingly towards the people dancing to the Rihanna. She hung back, protesting laughingly. _Probably wants to hang around Pogue some more_, Reid thought resentfully. Given the choice out of the four of them, any girl would take Pogue over the others, if it was based purely on looks. Character, they'd go for Caleb, intelligence, Tyler. Reid was the fuck-up, and he would always be the one who started fights and ended up getting the shit beaten out of him by Caleb.

"Come and dance with me?" Reid smiled, taking her hand to tug her closer to the fire, training himself to keep looking at her face. He had no clue what was going on behind those eyes—lit up by the fire, they were a stunning lavender-teal, and the curling lashes were elongated by their shadows—as he rarely had any clue what was going on inside his own head, but it wasn't in his nature to ask questions. It was his nature to have a good time, and to make sure the people around him were enjoying themselves as well. Lilah laughed and let him take her hand, threading his fingers through hers, grinning. Yeah, he liked this girl.

"Who's this?"

Reid snarled and Pogue tensed his muscles beneath the leather jacket, itching for a fight, as Aaron stepped in between them and Lilah. He heard Caleb sigh heavily. What did they have to do to get this guy to realise that he should just _back off_? He was worse than Reid!

"Aaron, this is Lilah Shakespeare. She just moved here from England," Sarah said dutifully. Hell, she had to introduce Lilah's new classmates, didn't she? Reid didn't like that he might have to share her. Fresh faces were difficult to come by. So was a girl who hadn't already been through the Spenser mill. The dating-pool at Spenser was limited, considering Aaron used girls like Kleenex and the 'Sons of Ipswich' were the heartthrobs of the school.

"Do you speak English?" Aaron asked, and Reid choked on his beer with laughter. Lilah's eyes widened; she didn't look too impressed, and she tugged on Reid's hand, stepping back a little bit. Reid smiled as she glanced over her shoulder. She didn't like him, and that made him like her even more.

"Yes," she said tersely, hunching her shoulders and folding her arms over her voluptuous chest—which was easily admired with the low cut of her black button-up cardigan—where Aaron's eyes had been lingering. "Apparently baboons do too." Reid laughed at Aaron's expense; the guy didn't seem to realise this was an insult.

"Wanna drink?" Aaron asked, expelling a mouthful of cigarette smoke in Lilah's face before taking another drag. She didn't seem too impressed, and that was putting it mildly, that she had been interrupted by this greasy jock, who was now breathing his cigarette smoke directly at her.

"No thanks."

Reid swore he didn't do it.

And he swore, for a split-second when Aaron was taking a third drag from his diminishing cigarette, her eyes turned as black as the crashing waves a hundred yards away from them. And the spurt of fire that seemed to spark them. That _couldn't_ have just been the reflection of the fire. Because the fire was behind her.

Aaron jumped back and yelled, dropping the cigarette as he choked for breath. The cigarette had been consumed by fire in less than a second, right as he breathed in, burning his fingers and lips.

It had jolted a sense of déjà vu in the boys, the scene; Aaron standing between Caleb and Sarah, picking a fight, Reid stopped from Using by Caleb. Except he swore he hadn't Used. Caleb had made them make a pact during the summer, after Pogue's blow-out, saying they'd only use their powers in the case of emergencies.

"Reid," Caleb's deep voice warned him, but Reid shot him a look. He hadn't done it.

But it didn't make any sense, what he'd seen. Unless she was…like them? Hell, she was from the Old World, where they'd all descended from originally. It was foolish to think these four—plus with Chase last year, five—boys were isolated cases of magical bloodlines.

Lilah merely ground the cigarette-butt with the toe of her tattered black Converse with a look of complete disgust as Aaron stumbled away to the cooler filled with ice.

"Obviously you're not a smoker," he whispered in her ear, and Lilah smiled bashfully as she tucked a strand of glossy black hair behind her ear. He grinned as Lilah grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the dancers as Sean Paul's 'Get Busy' came on.

He'd never been more turned on in his life. No, they didn't dance. Unless grinding shamelessly in public counted as dancing. At school dances—those his parents had forced him to go to—had been like this, low-lighting, fast-paced music and even faster girls. It was all in her hips. She moved her hips in teasing circles, pushed up against him, her arms draped over his as he held her waist. Or they'd dance with his hands on her butt, her arms draped around his neck, bodies pushed together. And while the keg kept flowing, so did their words.

She'd just flown into Boston airport this afternoon. She was English by blood, although her mother had been sent to Spenser when she was a teenager. Her father was ill and wanted her taken care of, so he'd sent her to Massachusetts near the only other living members of her family.

"I'll have to thank him for that," Reid grinned, and Lilah smiled in the firelight, as they rocked their hips so close together he was surprised he wasn't blushing. He couldn't help laughing. Everyone in Ipswich knew _the Sons of Ipswich_. It was nice to meet someone who didn't know, and who didn't have a pole shoved up her ass.

Lilah's powers were so great that she got even shy Tyler to come and join them, creating a Lilah-Sandwich, at which she laughed and put her hands on Tyler's shoulders to complete the set as Reid created the speed they grinded to. They convinced Pogue to dance again and even Caleb shimmied his hips in an attempt at dancing.

She did something to them, made them relax, made them feel that they were safe. That they didn't have to put up any walls around her and hide things from her. Like she was one of them, even if _she_ was shy. They all—him, Tyler, Pogue, Lilah—partied as if they'd known each other their entire lives.

She smiled at him blissfully as a slower, more mellow song came on, as the party wound down. In the firelight, her skin glowed, glistening with a thin layer of sweat from dancing so long, and her eyes were so light and lovely that Reid began second-guessing himself.

Could he possibly have seen her using the Power?

For one thing, she was a girl. In all their long family histories, no female descendent of the first Five had ever been given the Power.

But their Power had to come from somewhere, and it had to be carried through the female line, if only dormant. They brought it from the Old World. And all of their descendents were…English.

* * *

**A.N.:** P.S. I LOVE REVIEWS. Please review my work. Constructive criticism is always appreciated. But if you say somethin' mean I'll hunt you down and gut you like a fish...I mean...I'll delete the review! HA! _mellowenglishgal_ has POWER! It's a quarter-to-midnight, and I was in bed at three a.m. this morning, so...I think I'm becoming an insomniac. It's happened every day this week... I'm finishing my ramble now and hitting 'Save Changes'.


	2. Parry

**Author's Note**: To _Cheyenne_, my first review of this story! Yay! I'm sending you good vibes! And I'm sending them to you, _Mrs Bass-Malfoy_ and _Jessica _and _JoyMichelle_, yes, I will be doing more nasty stuff to Aaron and Kira (Insert evil Chortle here ;)

* * *

The party got rowdier and rowdier until Caleb took the initiative to leave, just as news of the cops got to them, and the boys followed suit. They'd jumped off the cliff to get down here, but Tyler had helped set up so his car was parked nearby. Pogue wasn't up to riding his bike, and Tyler was totally hammered. Sarah had gone with Caleb back to his place, and Lilah had no ride. Reid still couldn't believe a girl like her could _drink_ so much and not show it—except for getting a bit giggly and relaxing more. She'd out-drunk Pogue, which in itself was _amazing_, and once she'd started dancing, that was it, they couldn't get her to stop. Not that Reid had wanted her to stop dancing—because she liked dancing with him the most. At least, that's what it felt like when she grinned over her shoulder and grinded her hips harder against him.

The sirens echoed in the dells and the party broke up. Everyone else was slower than last year, because last year they hadn't been given the opportunity to drink anything. He grabbed Lilah's hand and they stumbled up the sandbank, Pogue supporting Tyler as they ran behind. He focused, his eyes flashed, and the doors of Tyler's black Hummer unlocked.

"Get in," he grinned breathlessly, and Lilah jumped into the car and scooted over, while the guys took the back seat. He could still walk straight, 'cause he hadn't been drinking much because he was so ensconced in dancing with Lilah, so he was driving. Tyler managed to get his keys out and Reid tore out of the glade quicker than anything. Lilah cranked the stereo up; the music covered the ringing in his ears left from the party. He glanced at Lilah, who sat beside him in the passenger seat; she shot him a smile and nodded her head to the music, rolling her window down.

"Do you do this every Saturday night?" she asked, laughing, as Reid made the Hummer careen dangerously on the right-hand wheels around several trees, carving his own path through the underbrush. It was their first weekend back at Spenser; they'd moved all their stuff into the dorms and were 'getting to know the school'. Their fourth year, all they knew now was how to get away from the beach quicker than the cops.

"Reid! Reid, stop the car!" Pogue shouted, and glancing in his rear-view mirror he saw why he was yelling over the music. Tyler was green. Before he'd even pulled over and stopped, Tyler had unbuckled his seatbelt and was stumbling to the cover of the trees. They all heard him retching.

"Man, he does this every time," Pogue shook his head, frowning out of the tinted window. It was always Tyler; he was the lightweight, their 'baby boy'.

"Poor baby," Reid laughed deeply, his eyes sliding closed as he rested against the head-restraint. They waited for a few minutes for Tyler to come back. Frowning, Reid wondered what was taking him so long. Reid was of the type who could drink whatever he wanted, pass out on his bed and wake up without hint of a hangover, usually with a girl (or two) beside him with no memory as to how they got there. He'd never had a hangover in his life, though he pretended just so he didn't rub it in the boys' faces when they felt like shit. Well, most of the time. They all watched the shadows, Reid getting more nervous.

"I'll go and see if he's okay," Lilah said softly, unbuckling her belt and slipping down to the mossy floor, following Pogue's path through the ferns. If she hadn't been there, he and Pogue would have just sat and waited for Tyler to come back. _She's got the maternal instinct…She's got the equipment for it. Go with her_, his little Jiminy encouraged, but Reid sat rooted to the seat as he watched the hips swinging tantalisingly.

"Black, g-string," Reid guessed with determination, holding up a twenty, staring after her. Pogue smirked. He shook his head, focusing on Lilah's ass. If nothing else could, betting on a girl's underwear and somehow manipulating their Power to see the truthful answer could pick Pogue out of his rut. Something like jealousy sparked in Reid's stomach. Reid knew well what jealous was. Caleb had his thoughtfulness, Pogue had his good-looks, Tyler had his bashfulness, and he had his jealousy.

"Pink cotton," Pogue said decisively, showing a twenty-dollar bill. Several minutes passed, and Reid was getting agitated, when Lilah's call echoed in the still woods.

"He's passed out." She came out of the woods with one of Tyler's arms draped over her shoulders, struggling to almost carry him back to the car. Grinning with triumph, Reid was first out of the car to chivalrously help Lilah—and Tyler, of course, and together they lifted Tyler into the Hummer. As she bent over, to buckle him in, her shirt rode up and her jeans were falling down one hip, revealing a tiny black string and a small diamond embellishment. Pogue saw it too and bit his lip, closing his eyes, relishing the sight.

Reid had never won that game before.

"Man, he's out of it," Pogue said softly, laughing abruptly as Tyler's head lolled. He slapped the twenty-dollar bill into Reid's palm as he shut the door, and Lilah turned the music down. They'd been sitting in silence too long now to appreciate the thrum against their tenderised eardrums.

* * *

Somehow, they managed to get Tyler back to campus without him puking again in the car, and Lilah offered to help Tyler up to their room.

"Does he have a roommate? He shouldn't be on his own if he's like this," Lilah said sensibly. Yeah, Reid didn't want the guy choking on his own puke, but he didn't exactly want to clean it up himself either. He'd done that enough for Tyler.

"He shares with me," Reid said quietly, as they crept down the dark, silent hallways, trying not to make too much noise as they stumbled and giggled, trying to carry Tyler. It was always good to avoid the house-parents who lived on the first floor. They tended to make a bit of a scene if one of the kids turned up plastered. So they never knew the exact number of students who were drinking and doing drugs. Reid didn't do drugs, and he appeared to be drunk even when he wasn't; he got high on life, even though the guys sometimes thought he was surly and a pain in the ass.

"He's going to regret this in the morning," Lilah sighed, as she took Reid's door-key and unlocked their dorm.

"I think he was tryin' to keep up with you," Reid smirked, as Lilah felt around the wall inside and flicked the lights on. "Where'd you learn to hold your drink like that?"

"Well, that stuff at the party was ninety-percent water and ten-percent beer," Lilah smiled softly. "I'm used to drinking stronger stuff. Oh, this is more like it," Lilah sighed, her brilliant eyes roving over their room. They'd been moved in one day and already the room had been overturned into their usual organised chaos. "Sarah's really _neat_. It's almost obsessive-compulsive…Um…so where does he sleep?" They carried him to the bed Tyler had slept in since they were fourteen, freshmen at Spenser.

Lilah whispered in Tyler's ear, stripping his sweatshirt and t-shirts off with only a few grumbles of annoyance from almost-unconscious Tyler. _Bastard_, Reid thought, shooting unconscious Tyler a glower as jealousy flared in his stomach, watching her take care of him. He watched her tug his boots and socks off and gently tuck the quilt over him, smoothing the light brunette hair away from his forehead and gently kissing it. Reid retrieved a bucket from under Tyler's bed and set it beside his bedside-cabinet, ready.

"Er…Reid, could you walk me to my room?" Lilah asked quietly. Reid raised his eyebrows and smirked gently. _Well, if that ain't an open invitation_, he thought. But he noticed she was playing with the ring above her knuckle on her middle finger nervously.

"Not scared of the dark, are you?" he asked teasingly, but he gestured her grandly out of the dorm.

"Not the dark, so much as the feeling of being watched and fearing hands will grab through the banister of the stairs and grab my leg and pull me down to a gory end," Lilah said, and her eyes were so wide and earnest he couldn't suppress a tiny laugh.

"Come on, I'll walk you," he smiled. He grinned, slipped and arm around her shoulders protectively and they walked down the corridor, up the stairs, and went a quarter of the way down the hallway before Lilah stopped.

"This is my room," she smiled. Sarah still had the same dorm. They all did. "I suppose Sarah isn't back yet." The frosted windows above the panelling were dark.

"I doubt she'll be back tonight," Reid said, glancing at Lilah to see if she picked up. She rolled her eyes amusedly.

"Ah."

"You want me to check under your bed for monsters?" Reid asked teasingly, smirking, and giggling when she swiped at him playfully. _God, I just giggled_, Reid thought, with an internal sigh.

"_Goodnight_, Reid," she smiled, cocking her head to one side so her thick black waves fell across her cheek. He reached over and gently brushed her hair behind her ear, feeling the chill metal of her piercings against his skin. She hitched one corner of her mouth in a sweet smile and a dimple winked in the corner, like a kiss. He smiled and walked off backwards, checking her out as she cocked her head again, watching him with that all-too-knowing smirk.

The girl was _hot_.

He strutted back to his room, grinning, but he quietened as he neared his dorm, afraid he'd wake Tyler. But Tyler's snores already filled the room; he was out-cold.

"Fucking lightweight," he sighed heavily, laughing softly as he undressed and pulled on plaid pyjama bottoms, making sure his alarm wouldn't _accidentally_ go off at five a.m. Not that he'd actually turned the alarm-function of his cellphone on since he'd _got_ the phone! He tossed it back onto his bedside cabinet and grabbed a pillow, glancing over at Tyler. That boy totally slept like a dead person.

* * *

"What do you want? Eggs, bacon, waffles?" Reid smirked. Tyler shuddered visibly, keeping his mouth clamped shut.

"Don't even mention food," he murmured darkly. "If I even look at food, I'm going to puke."

"So," Reid said lightly. "Were you _trying_ to impress her by puking? I don't think it worked." Reid was in one of his gloating moods, and was milking his lack of hangover for all it was worth, especially where Lilah was concerned.

"Reid, go eat your breakfast," Tyler mumbled, resting his head tenderly against his hands.

"You mean my buttery buckwheat pancakes and bacon?" Reid smirked, waving his plate under Tyler's nose. He loved taunting Tyler when he was hung-over, because he always puked.

"I'm serious—when I can, I will grind you to a pulp," Tyler managed to pull of a semi-threatening growl as he pawed at his face with his sweatshirt sleeves like a sleepy little kitten. "Fuck off."

"Okay, okay," Reid sighed, raising his palms defensively. "Maybe when I come back up I'll bring you something to eat. Maybe a sausage or two so you can bite down on one of those little hard chunks. And…maybe a poached egg slightly undercooked, with that white runny stuff that you can never quite keep on the spoon." Tyler went white and bolted to their little bathroom area. Reid laughed loudly and went to the kitchen, pulling out a frying pan and scrambling himself some eggs and frying some bacon. The cool thing about being in the upper-classmen dorms was they got their own kitchen, and didn't have to rely on the dining-hall staff to feed them at ungodly hours at the weekend: unfortunately, dorm-assignments being what they were, he and Tyler were forced to share with Aaron and a bunch of other guys. He finished his plate, washed his dishes went back to his room upstairs, finding his friend freshly-showered and getting dressed for the day.

"What're we doin' today?" he asked.

"I dunno. Wanna go ask Sarah what Caleb and Pogue are up to?" he asked nonchalantly. Tyler smirked as he tugged his khaki jacket on over a sweatshirt. Reid grabbed his keys and wallet and shoved it in his pocket, tugging on his black zipper hoodie. Grey storm clouds were rolling in from the beach. Reid strode off down the hall, trailed by Tyler, up to Lilah's dorm. He knocked on the door and opened it, stopping still and staring.

Lilah stood with her back to them, stark-naked, her wet black hair twisted over her right shoulder, her clothes spread out on a chocolate-brown duvet. There was a tattoo scrolling over the nape of her neck—_Peace, _written in beautiful, looping cursive. She glanced over her left shoulder, and the twist of her torso showed Reid a flash of her breast, but that, coupled with the view of her very _fine _ass—which Pogue would greatly appreciate—was more than enough to make him react.

"Oh my god," Reid moaned softly. Sarah yelled at them loudly from somewhere for them to get out.

"SORRY!" Tyler yelped, snatching at the door, and promptly snapping it shut on Reid's nose.

"_Ow_!" He stumbled backwards and clutched his nose. He wouldn't be able to get that image out of his head for days now. He and Tyler exchanged a look; he bit his knuckles, and Tyler smacked him round the back of the head. "_OW_! What the hell, man!"

"Don't be such a pig!" Tyler scolded, but Reid could hear laughter from inside the room.

"You can come in," Lilah called, laughingly, and Tyler had to hold Reid back from flying into the room.

"I just want to see her tattoo again," Reid pouted softly, but Tyler gave him a look and they waited a few seconds before entering the bedroom. _There must be something in the water in this room_, Reid thought wistfully. Each girl who had lived in room 245 was _hot_, and the pattern so far had been that they dated a Son of Ipswich.

"Hey, Sarah. Sorry Lilah," Tyler apologised, over the whir of the hair-dryer as Lilah blow-dried her hair in front of the mirror in their little bathroom area. He perched on the edge of Sarah's desk, but Reid went and jumped on Lilah's vacated bed.

"That's alright," Lilah laughed softly, waving an airy hand.

"We were gonna head over to the mall to pick up some things for our room; wanna come?" Sarah asked. "I know your TV is broken." She gave Reid a significant look; he folded his arms defensively over his chest and looked away, at Lilah.

"Sure," he agreed, and Tyler nodded mutely.

"Pogue phoned me a while ago. He and Caleb want to meet up at TGI Friday's at around seven," Sarah said. "Are you both coming?" Pogue had called Reid several times before he'd been conscious enough to pick up.

"Yeah, I'll give you a ride back later if you want," Reid offered. He could watch Lilah from here as she flicked a brush through her hair, wrinkled her nose and tied it up into a lazy bun high on her head, tendrils escaping and framing her lovely oval face, creating wispy curls at the nape of her neck.

"How are you feeling, Tyler?" she asked, glancing at him in the mirror, and laughed softly. "You look like you've been reincarnated as a rag." Reid and Sarah both laughed as Tyler blushed.

Reid examined the things on Lilah's bedside cabinet and the chair on the other side of her bed. A huge black DVD case on the chair with her silver Apple laptop, a little silver LG enV that looked brand-new, a burgundy passport, a leopard-print coin-purse, and on her bedside cabinet, a thin book—_The Outsiders_—and a black and white photograph of a stunning woman with long black curling hair, dressed in a beautiful white dress, her head thrown back, Lilah's smile lighting up her face, as she swung on a tree-swing.

"Who's this?" Reid asked interestedly, staring at the picture. She looked so like Lilah it was incredible.

"Hm? Oh, that, that is my mother," Lilah said softly, going through a suitcase.

"She's beautiful," Reid breathed, setting the picture back on the cabinet where he'd found it. "She looks a lot like you." Tyler pretended to retch and smirked; Sarah smiled knowingly in the mirror. Lilah gave him the most beautiful smile. She'd thrown on a short, dark denim mini-skirt that clung to her hips and ass and a soft teal flannel short-sleeved shirt, a few buttons undone to show a bit of cleavage.

"What was her name?" Reid asked. Lilah had mentioned last night that her father had sent her to Spenser, and her mother had gone to school there too.

"Pearl Parry," Lilah said tenderly. She glanced at Reid again, as Reid's eyebrows shot up. She was related to _Pogue_! "My grandfather was the younger brother of Pogue's. He married an English Lady, and they had my mother. My father's really ill, and he wanted to know someone would look after me when…if he dies soon." Tyler caught Reid's eye: So she was descendent of an Ipswich family, if only a little bit. Power was only given to the eldest male, but it could be passed on through genetics. Caleb was a direct descendent; every male in his direct lineage had the Power: Reid's power was weaker because he was a son of a son of a second-son, who got the power when his elder brother died early. Sarah arched an eyebrow at him, inquisitive, no doubt thinking along the same lines as her. Lilah was technically a Daughter of Ipswich.

"What about your mom?" Tyler asked, glancing at the photograph.

"She died here in Ipswich when I was a baby," Lilah said softly, glancing at the photograph as well.

"I'm sorry," Reid said softly, and he meant it.

"You don't have to be," Lilah said quickly, glancing right into his eyes.

"Hey, _The Outsiders_," Tyler smiled as he picked up the book. "This is my favourite book."

"Mine too," Lilah smiled warily. "I like the movie, too."

"I didn't know you could read, Tyler," Reid said thoughtfully, glancing at Lilah's reaction. She smirked as she stuffed a thick wad of cash into her bra. She unlocked the dorm behind her, leaving a note to Sarah tucked between the door and frame, and they squealed out of the student parking-lot in Tyler's Hummer. White Zombie issued from the monster speaker-system. Like last night, she nodded her head to the music, though he hated how Tyler was driving and she was sitting up front with him while Sarah sat in the back with him.

* * *

**A.N.:** In an effort to make this novelesque in length, I'm trying to write this fic as real-to-life as it can get, so real conversations and stuff, so it might unfold slowly. Anyway, thank you for reviewing, and please tell me what you think of this chap.


	3. Shorts

**Disclaimer:** Yeah, yeah, I don't own Toby...

**Author's Note**: Okay, so I'm trying to make it like _real-life_ so it's more of a life-story--but it won't be as long, I promise. Anyway, it'll pick up in the next chapter. Promise.

* * *

"So you two are both on the school swimming-team?" Lilah asked, as they passed the little McDonald's into Target.

"Yeah, all of us guys are," Tyler said. "Do you swim?"

"Six times a week, and meets," Lilah smiled. "I didn't know there was a team at Spenser until Sarah told me, so I didn't bother packing my good swimsuit." She spoke slang but she still managed to sound more eloquent than even Caleb's mom, and Reid was completely mesmerised whenever she spoke.

"Well, go and pick a suit out," Sarah nodded over at the racks of women's swimwear.

"Yeah, you can try-out for the team tomorrow," Reid encouraged, glancing worriedly at Tyler. He looked really pale and queasy.

"I'm gonna go get a soda," Tyler mumbled, and shuffled off to McDonald's. Lilah squirmed nervously, glancing at the displays, and finally her love of swimming won over, and she returned a few seconds later with a plain black racer-back Speedo cut high on the hips, tossing it carelessly into the cart Reid pushed.

"Your mother trained you well. I've known you twelve hours and already I've got you pushing my trolley," Lilah smiled tauntingly. Sarah giggled, and he grabbed Lilah's waist and tickled her until the two older women over by the bathrobes gave them disapproving looks. _What—it's not like I'm gonna jump her here_, Reid thought indignantly, releasing Lilah.

She grabbed a cute little flannel dress and a few long-sleeved tops and a little pair of black ballet-shoes from the women's clothing sections and Sarah looked at lingerie and Tyler dashed off to get new pyjamas and some t-shirts, and Reid found some plain sheets and a set of towels in the bedding section while the girls looked at storage bins and corkboards and lamps and a little mini-refrigerator. Lilah looked at a flat-screen TV and a multi-region DVD player and Reid found a replacement for his TV, Tyler looked at video-games and Sarah looked at school-supplies, and Reid stocked up on aspirin, Pepto-Bismol and snacky foods for his dorm.

"What are these like?" Lilah asked interestedly, picking up a packet of Reese's Peanut Butter cups. "I've seen them at Shakeaway, but I've never tried one."

"You've never had Reese's?" Reid gaped.

"I've never had any of this—except Kit Kat and Snickers and M&Ms," Lilah said thoughtfully. "Sweets in England are different. And the chocolate is much better. Oh, hang on, I need to get batteries. I'll be back in a sec." Tyler lugged a crate of Gatorades and water around the aisle and they had to make room underneath the cart for it next to the sodas.

"How are you ever going to eat this much?" Lilah asked disbelievingly, as Reid grabbed a box of Clif bars and a few boxes of Rice-a-Roni and Kraft Mac-and-cheese.

"You underestimate us," Reid smiled.

"What's all this candy for?" Tyler asked, frowning into their cart. "It's not Halloween yet."

"We're watching movies tonight—popcorn!" Reid gasped, and he heard the two laughing as he whirled around back to the candy aisles. He almost ran into Sarah with her armfuls of lever-arch binders and plastic wallets, and they went to the check-out lanes and separated everything into who was paying for it.

"How are we going to fit all this in your boot?" Lilah asked, and Reid quirked an eyebrow at her. "The back of your car? The trunk?"

"Oh," he laughed. "It's alright, we'll leave Tyler here."

"Hey!" Tyler yelped indignantly behind them.

"Oh, it's absolutely _pissing _it down out there," Lilah groaned, peering out of the automatic doors. "We'll have to run for the car." Reid shrugged his hoodie off and handed it to Lilah; she grinned and tugged it on without protest, flipping the hood up, and they ran across the parking-lot. He let Tyler in the back seat after they'd managed to get all their stuff into the trunk and the back seat and drove back to Spenser, running all their stuff into the foyer and getting completely soaked.

* * *

Waiting for the girls in the foyer, he glanced up the stairs and noticed Lilah walking down them, fingers tracing the banister. She was wearing a pair of really tight dark-wash jeans and a pair of black heels with a tiny strap over her toes, and a low-cut black halter-top with sequins on it that flashed her gorgeous breasts. She'd tied her hair up loosely and a few tendrils still escaped the jewelled comb, and silver hoops flashed whenever she moved her head.

"Hey, you look great," Reid said nervously, taking her in as she strode over to him on her heels, almost as tall as him. The dimples at the corners of her mouth as she smiled were more than enough of a reward for his compliment. She smelled really good too, like berries, something like wine or strong cider mulled in autumn with cinnamon and nutmeg. Sarah emerged a few minutes later with Tyler, both laughing. Sarah was wearing one of her loose dresses and her denim jacket, and Reid realised Lilah didn't have one with her.

"Nice car," Lilah grinned, bending over slightly to look at the interior of his vintage 1969 Stingray. It was his baby, gleaming dark-red, flashing chrome.

"Come sit in the front," he smiled, and Tyler was forced to clamber into the back seat with Sarah. Reid figured if she was sitting up front, he wouldn't spend the whole car-ride looking into the rear-view mirror.

"Do you drive?" Reid asked.

"Yeah. I just got my full license at home," Lilah sighed heavily, letting Tyler clamber into the back seat. "You can only start learning at seventeen. It's taken me since then to get a test booked in and _pass_ it. If I sound bitter, I am." Reid laughed softly.

"Do you have a licence here yet?" Sarah asked interestedly. Lilah shook her head, and gasped, her brilliant eyes widening, as Styx played '_Renegade_', singing along loudly, laughing with him as he joined in. He _loved _'Renegade'. He drove them across town to T.G.I. Friday's, which was heaving even on Sunday evening, and found Pogue sitting in a booth with Caleb. He knuckle-knocked with them and his stomach flipped jealously as Lilah kissed their cheeks affectionately. _Must be a European thing_, he thought, choosing not to read too much into it.

"Have you guys ordered drinks yet?" Tyler asked. He looked really peaky; he hadn't eaten much today.

"No, what do you want?" Lilah asked, getting up; she was on the end of the bench beside Reid. "I like the look of the frozen margaritas."

"They'll never serve you!" Sarah said disbelievingly. Lilah's eyes lit up at the challenge; she smirked and adjusted her top, throwing the alabaster shoulders and throat—and the all-important cleavage into sharp relief.

"Twenty dollars says I can get that cute bartender to serve me," she dared, and the boys all threw down cash against her, except Reid.

"This isn't England," Sarah laughed indignantly. "They won't give her anything but soda here."

Reid watched her carefully, mostly focusing on any skin she bared, the curve of her breasts under the top, the fact she wasn't wearing a bra, that she was wearing a lustrous red lipstick and smoky black eye makeup, that her jeans were too tight for her to wear any underwear at all beneath them. He watched her lean over the bar and sweet-talk the bartender. The others didn't notice, but he was certain—could he, though, in this light?—that her eyes had flashed as the bartender started speaking, probably asking for her ID. She came back balancing a tray loaded with two huge frozen margaritas and four Coronas on it, grinning triumphantly. She waved a napkin.

"What's that?" Sarah asked, laughing.

"His phone-number," Lilah giggled, and the boys laughed, until she held out her hand for their money. She folded it and stuck it in her top, where pattern told Reid she always kept her cash, as she had today in Target. They ordered food; the closest thing to authentic Mexican they could get this close to the Canadian border, and sweet-toothed Reid and Lilah shared a dessert. They paid their share of the bill and Reid offered his hoodie as they walked outside into the bitter air and he noticed Lilah shiver and hug her arms.

"Here," he smiled, and Lilah smiled as she accepted the hoodie and shrugged it on, doing the zip up and walking close to him back to the car. Sarah came with them, and the two girls giggled softly in the back seat while Tyler kept changing the CD in the front. Reid parked up and Sarah and Tyler both ran to the doors as the rain started pattering.

"Thank you for today," Lilah said quietly, smiling bashfully, as they walked to the doors with hunched shoulders. She still wore his hoodie, and he didn't ask for it back. "I was afraid I wouldn't meet anyone I liked here. I had fun with you."

"Yeah, it was great," Reid said honestly. Teasing Tyler was always fun when he wasn't the only one doing it, especially when Lilah's taunts prompted Tyler to retaliate. Tyler never retaliated to taunts; he always backed down to the guys—except Aaron's friends, who were all show anyway. He liked that he could talk to Lilah. He'd never been able to talk to girls before, but her constant teasing and flirting made it easy. He walked Lilah to her dorm, remembering she didn't like the dark and the others were inconsiderate in turning all the lights off, and he smiled, feeling hot, as she kissed his cheek in goodnight.

* * *

Lilah was nervous. She'd never had to walk into a brand-new set of schoolmates in a brand-new school. She'd boarded at the same tiny private school in London since she was eleven and had a very tight-knit circle of friends. Being 'gifted' as her father called it, she had to work hard to keep those friends. She'd had to have her own room since she was thirteen, since she started unconsciously using her powers at night. Luckily it had started during the summer just before her birthday, and the only person who saw her levitate in her sleep had been her father. But since then she'd stuck to the same circle of friends—or strangers when she partied and wanted to impress people with the things she could do. They thought she was amazing, performing little tricks that amused her as much as they amused them. But she'd grown to control her Power and only used it occasionally, usually to punish people who had insulted her friends or herself.

A few times—like at the party on Saturday night with Aaron's cigarette, and getting drinks for them at T.G.I. Friday's last night—she'd thought Reid had seen her Using, as her father called it. Reid looked at her a lot, and that made her nervous. He was so _yummy_ and actually quite charming when he wasn't being cheeky, and the others were gorgeous too. She just hoped he'd still be her friend if he found out—because people did, and she had to alter their memories when that happened—about her Power. Sarah had a few books on her desk that she'd looked at on Saturday afternoon before the party—the original colonists of what they made Ipswich, use of the Power during the Trials that spread superstition to Salem. It was enough for Lilah to believe this was the only reason her father had sent her to Spenser—because other kids had Power like her. And because one of the Sons was a cousin of sorts of hers. But it was too much to hope that she could come out and say she was a witch without them turning on her. She didn't know anyone well enough yet to know if she'd become the social leper.

Right now she felt like a slice of pie or something else packed with sugar and delicious, because of the way that boy Aaron was shamelessly checking her out and flirting with her outside their history lecture-theatre.

"You know, I could totally show you around Spenser if you want," he smiled, taking her timetable and pretending to look it over. "Have you been into the woods yet? There's a really beautiful brook where swans live. Want me to show you it sometime?" _He probably spends more time in front of the mirror than I do_, Lilah thought.

"She can't," someone spoke up. The voice was male, pleasant, taunting: Reid. "She's waiting for some self-obsessed prick to ask her to a quiet, secluded _romantic_ spot so he can try and get in her pants." Lilah hid her smirk tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, and shot Reid a smile as he strode up. Dressed in a school uniform, he looked so different; they all did, but he still managed to get away with wearing those fingerless gloves and earring in his left ear.

"Hey Lilah," Reid grinned, touching her waist. Tyler smiled beside him, ever the faithful puppy-dog. Aaron glowered and walked away as soon as his girlfriend—what Lilah assumed was his girlfriend, the frizzy redhead with the fake boobs—appeared.

"Was he bothering you?" Tyler asked, watching Aaron appease the girl as she glared jealously at Lilah.

"Oh, he was just trying to be cute," Lilah laughed softly. She glanced at him again. He looked pretty much as he did at the party—white-collar, spoilt by money, angry, and aggressive. She'd met boys like him before. "He's a bit short for me, though." She glanced unconsciously at Reid, who was several inches taller and cocked his head to one side so they were almost eye-to-eye when they talked. She liked Reid more than the other boys, mostly because of his attitude. He was brooding like Pogue but not dark like Caleb, and liked to have fun. And he had tattoos. She could respect any man who could go through the pain of getting a tattoo—because that was the limit of any pain they would ever feel in the normalcy of their lives, compared to women going through childbirth _because_ of men.

"What's your schedule like?" Tyler asked, taking the piece of paper from her hand. He and Reid looked it over and Reid grinned. "Same as us."

"It's really strange; at my old school, we only had to study four subjects," Lilah sighed. "This year I'd be taking three. And I haven't taken P.E. since I was eleven." Caleb appeared, and asked about the English school system, so Lilah spent a few minutes explaining the differences to the boys, and when the lecture-theatre doors opened, she went and introduced herself to her new teacher, Mr Tillman, while the other students climbed up the steps to the rows of seats. She stood nervously while Mr Tillman tried to get their attention and played with the spine of her new history textbook.

"Class, settle down," Mr Tillman said, raising his voice over their chatter. "I know it's only our first day back and you're all still catching up from the summer, but we have a new student I'd like to introduce to you. Miss Shakespeare joins us all the way from England. Lilah, why don't you take a seat next to Mr Garwin. Perhaps _you_ can encourage him to crack a book open this year." Lilah grinned, mirroring Reid, and quickly stalked over to the closest set of steps up to his row. The frizzy redhead sneered at her as she strode up the stairs past her, commenting snidely:

"Nice stockings."

"Nice botox injections," Lilah retorted. Lilah noted how each and every other girl wore geeky socks up to their knees. Completely unflattering. Lilah knew this girl's type; stuck-up, new-money, with a superiority complex. People from money were always snobs and useless. Except the Sons of Ipswich. Despite the name that suggested some superiority, she found the boys to be _normal_, and not in the least bit snobbish or arrogant. She liked Sarah: Sarah wasn't from money. She was here on an academic scholarship, and probably earned every penny of help she got.

"Morning," he smirked, watching the sheen of her stockings as she crossed her thighs. She rolled her eyes and smacked him playfully with her notebook.

"Now, this year we will be focusing on the Revolutions—French, American and Russian," Mr Tillman called up the lecture theatre. "We will begin with the American revolution, and the midterm will be on everything you learn over the next few months. So, Mr Garwin, _pay attention_."

Lilah glanced at Reid; he rolled his eyes and brought out a notebook. They dove right into a lecture—the _Mayflower_, and the British charters. It was interesting to Lilah, since she had never studied American history before, and her hand flew over the page as she scribbled down detailed notes, highlighting passages of the textbook she'd bought at Borders on Saturday afternoon when Sarah walked with her into town. When Tillman lulled into reading passages, she and Reid scribbled notes on his notebook.

"Mr Garwin, please focus on my lecture, and not on Miss Shakespeare," Mr Tillman sighed exasperatedly, and Lilah glanced up from her notebook, looking quickly at Reid.

"Sorry," Reid apologised, not looking away from Lilah. She smirked as she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and noted something down in her book casually, secretly pleased.

* * *

The hall echoed as people dived into the pool and splashed around and called across the room to each other from the locker-rooms. Tyler and Ryan were already racing—Tyler was pulling ahead and the guys cheered him on. P.E. was always the time they could just mess around; swim-practice was serious stuff. Reid sat against the blue tarp they hauled over the pool every night after practice. People were still filing out of the changing-rooms, mostly the girls, and he and Pogue both jumped when someone _spanked_ their asses, whirling around.

"Hiya," Lilah smiled brightly. Reid couldn't help it; his eyes went straight to her body. All day, she'd been wearing her white school shirt, and it was the most annoying thing in the world to see the pattern of her blue-and-white striped bra—with lace and red-ribbon trim—and not be able to touch. Now she was wearing the plain black swimsuit she'd bought yesterday—tight, high-legged—with her hair tied back in a thick, glossy braid that doubled back on itself. She looked so _yummy_, almost edible, so tall and slender except her breasts.

"So Reid tells me you're looking to try out for the team," Pogue said interestedly.

"Maybe," Lilah shrugged bashfully.

"You'd have to beat _me _in a race if you wanted a place," Kira appeared, sneering at Lilah. She was short, flat-chested and really frizzy in the humidity of the enclosed pool. But Aaron still hung off her, as if trying to make Lilah feel bad for letting Reid and Tyler interfere earlier. As if Lilah was stupid enough to be interested in him.

"Careful your bathing suit doesn't slip," Aaron commented, eyeing her unabashedly. "Looks like you're already busting out." Reid glowered at him, taking defensive stance behind Lilah.

"Well, at least I can fill more than a training bra," Lilah said lightly, shrugging, and Reid laughed as Kira flushed with a mixture of anger and embarrassment.

"I hear Hooters is hiring if you're looking for a job," Aaron said, and Reid jumped at him. Lilah held him back.

"Don't worry about it, Reid," she said quietly, staring at Aaron challengingly. "He's only jealous because he has nothing to hold onto with _that_." Coach blew her whistle and called attention; they had to take roll.

"Okay, warm up with ten laps, and we'll do some diving," Coach grinned. "We'll just play around today. Competition for the best dive; winner gets candy." Reid loved diving. Something about plummeting to impending doom made his adrenaline rush. He was the best diver in the school because he was fearless. Most of the girls never got past the starting-blocks.

"I hope you got me Swedish Fish," Reid grinned, and Coach laughed, showing him a little yellow bag of red candy. Lilah lingered near Coach, and Reid grinned over at her. "Coach, this is Lilah Shakespeare. She just transferred from an English school. She's looking to join the swim-team."

"Are you? Well, great. We're looking for new blood on the girl's team," Coach smiled up at Lilah. "Let's see what you've got, and I'll talk to you after class about trying-out." Lilah nodded, smiling bashfully, and followed Reid to the water. He finished his laps quickly, but she was quicker, smiling as she sat on the edge of the pool, dangling her legs in the water, watching the first group do their diving. He booed as Aaron climbed the ladder to the highest diving-board, and noticed how Lilah's eyes were fixed on him too, frowning intensely. He was sure he didn't just imagine her eyes flashing in the reflections of the water, but he watched Aaron pull off a dive and surface.

He burst out laughing with the rest of the class as Aaron exited the pool—without his shorts. They floated to the surface and Aaron stood there like an idiot, covering himself with his swimming-cap. Lilah plucked the shorts out of the water and strutted over to Aaron, gloating as she offered the shorts between two fingers.

"Reid, Lilah, you're up next," Coach called, as Aaron ran to the showers. Reid grinned and followed Lilah as she tugged her swimming-cap on over her hair, covering her pierced ears. She ascended the ladder first, her hips wiggling as she climbed, and she balanced on the end of the diving-board before bouncing slightly, throwing up her arms, and tumbling in two mid-air somersaults before straightening out and plunging under the water with only a tiny disturbance of the water. He applauded along with everyone else as she emerged from the water and accepted the towel Pogue offered.

Reid climbed the stairs, wondering how Aaron's insult of her earlier had triggered the most ironic of events leading to the loss of his swim-shorts. It'd happened before, the intense look, the flash of her eyes, like so many times when he Used.

"Alright, and the prize goes to…" Coach paused for dramatic effect, offering the candy first to Reid and then to Lilah, who blushed and glanced apologetically at him as she took the candy. "Alright everyone, hit the showers. Lilah, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"We'll wait outside for you," Pogue promised, and Reid took one last look at Lilah's ass before he followed the boys to the showers.

* * *

**A.N.:** Kinda boring, I know. Next chappie up soon.


	4. Coven

**Disclaimer:** Okay, this is the fourth chapter, so I think you get it.

**Author's Note:** Okay, this is where things pick up the pace, as promised, to those of you who are still faithfully reading. But not reviewing :( So here it is:

* * *

"I _swear_ I'm not the one Using," Reid growled, shoving Caleb away. "I swore the oath too, remember."

"Well it's not me, Pogue isn't stupid enough to Use now, and Tyler doesn't have the balls to break the oath," Caleb glared, and Tyler's eyes narrowed to slits. "Unless you're telling me Chase is back."

"It could be _anyone_," Reid snarled, shoving Caleb away again. He didn't like the surly, threatening glare, but he'd prefer to feel Caleb's punches rather than Lilah be subject to them. Because he _knew_, somewhere in his brain, that it was she who was Using on Aaron and Kira and their friends. Little things, like making a pool ball smack Aaron in the crotch in the rec room of the dorms, after he'd made some comment about getting Lilah out of her skirt when she'd unfortunately for him been standing talking to Reid and Tyler—or like making the girls' skirts tuck into their underwear when they'd teased her at swim-practice. The last week had passed with those tiny hints at Power being used, ever since Lilah showed up.

"It's always _you_, Reid," Caleb growled threateningly. It seemed to Reid like they had this conversation every week. Even after he'd sincerely sworn the oath not to Use except in emergencies, Caleb was still quick to suspect him for every little thing that seemed paranormal.

"I haven't Used since the summer," Reid growled, smacking Caleb's fists away from his shirt.

"Caleb, leave off, okay; I haven't seen him Use since July," Tyler said soothingly.

"Shut up!" Caleb bellowed at Tyler. "I'm sick and tired of you always jumping in to defend him! When's he ever gonna learn that what he's doing is killing him!"

"Don't you yell at him like that!" Reid shouted, sending a ball of Power at Caleb that knocked him back into Tyler's desk. He could tyrannise Reid all he wanted, but Tyler never fought back. Caleb threw a ball at him that sent Reid into the window between the two beds. He heard the glass smash—and felt it—as he was pitched through the pane and was falling backwards. His eyes flashed and he fell back on the grass that was softer than usual, springy, and scrambled to his feet, unharmed.

He glared up at the window; Caleb's face was white with shock; Tyler looked like he was about to cry. Reid stalked off, ignoring their shouts, unable to shirk the raw feeling in his throat and eyes that made him angry at the same time as it made him feel extremely vulnerable. He didn't go back to the boarding house for several hours, just driving too fast around Ipswich to calm him down. It was already Friday night, and he was sitting alone in his old Stingray listening to dead musicians. Hunger made his stomach growl, and he made his way over to Nicky's, not caring if he saw the boys.

* * *

"Hey Nicky, have you seen Reid?" Lilah asked, almost shouting over the jukebox. Nicky gave her one of those looks he got when he was being disapproving.

"Last I saw he was headin' out with Aaron and his boys," Nicky said heavily.

"He was on his own?" Lilah shouted over the tumult as a pool-game was won.

"I tell you Lilah, I'm gettin' sick and tired of breaking up their fights," Nicky said deeply. Lilah had only been to Nicky's place twice, but her accent had won over the waitresses and Nicky. She ran to through the crowd to the back door, banging it open, and stopped still as she saw what was happening. While Reid was broad-shouldered and muscular, he wasn't a match for three guys.

"—son of a _bitch_!" Aaron growled, smacking Reid right on the nose.

"Hey!" she bellowed, and anger flared in her stomach, making her eyes flash. The boys were thrown off Reid by some invisible force as Reid crumpled, gasping, to the floor. She stalked past Aaron, who was groaning on the floor, to Reid, who was struggling to stand up properly, wincing. She put her arms around his waist and supported him as he gasped for breath.

"Come on, let's go," she gasped, kicking Aaron in the stomach as she stumbled past with Reid. "That's for calling my Reid a bitch." She supported Reid down the alley to the street and helped him over to his Stingray. She'd recognised it looking in all the Main Street shops. She dropped him on the bonnet of the car, concerned he was wincing so much.

"Are you alright?" she asked gently, touching the purplish-red bruise already flourishing on his left cheekbone. He jerked his head away from her touch, looking annoyed and ashamed. "Reid—hey, look at me!—you've created a lot of trouble tonight. Pogue and Tyler came running into my room asking if I knew where you were, saying something about you falling out of a _window_ and that you might be really hurt. Caleb's been on the verge of a stroke worrying about hitting you." Reid just clenched his jaw resentfully and glared at the drain. She cupped his face tenderly and brought his face round to look at her.

"Are you alright?" she repeated softly, staring into his pale, angry eyes. The resentment faded and he nodded slightly, his features relaxing.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he sighed heavily. He stared at her unrelentingly and Lilah felt nervous. "You Used, didn't you, to get them off me." Lilah tried to step away. He held her waist comfortably in his hands, non-threatening, gazing at her in wonder. When she didn't say anything, his eyes widened and he grinned.

"I knew it!" he gasped softly.

"You can't tell anybody, not even Tyler," Lilah said quickly. "Especially not Caleb." Her father had called yesterday: she'd told him all about the Sons of Ipswich, and he'd told her that what the history books had to say was true; they were _witches_, which had initially made Lilah smirk, but it meant that if they thought she was a threat to them, they might…destroy her? She hadn't counted on any of them figuring out she had Power before she'd truly gained their trust. Reid's blue eyes flickered between hers and he shook his head in slight disbelief.

"That's crazy. How's that possible?" he asked in a whisper. Lilah blushed at the intensity of his gaze. Someone shouted across the street: glancing over her shoulder, she saw Aaron and his boys striding out of the alley.

"Come on, I'll explain somewhere else," she said, and Reid jumped into the driver's seat. They pealed away from the parking-space and down Main Street. "Head to the dells," Lilah said softly, turning the music down. She watched Reid from the corner of her eye, nervous, but he didn't say anything and kept his eyes on the road as he drove them closer to the woods and the beach where they'd partied last Saturday. He parked the car on the edge of the woods overlooking the water, and Lilah got out of the car, walking towards the waves.

"I want to show you something," she said softly, as Reid touched the palm of her hand with his fingertips. She kept walking, thinking _I want to walk on water_, and suddenly, she was. Her heels didn't puncture an invisible plate of glass that seemed to move over the water as she trod it, and twenty feet away from the shore, she turned and looked back at Reid. His broad shoulders had fallen lax, his lips slightly parted.

"Holy shit," she heard him breathe, and Lilah walked back to him, settling on the sand and hugging her knees. Reid sat beside her, still staring.

"The real reason I came here was because I fell out of a seventh-storey window," Lilah said. "I landed right on my neck." She laughed bitterly. "I was up on my feet again before anyone could work up a good scream. My father had to Use a lot of Power to cover it up, alter people's memories, and it was a lot of trouble for him. He's old, and really ill, so he can't use as much power as he'd like to."

"But I thought your mom was the one who carried Power in her genes," Reid frowned.

"A dormant gene, yes," Lilah nodded. "But her family—your families, yours, Tyler's, Caleb's—they're all weak strains of the Power." She sighed heavily, as he frowned again. "My father is sending some books from our library at home that will explain everything much better, but I know most of the story: My ancestors were the leaders of a great coven of witches in England. They were nobility, very influential in the courts. In the 1610's, your families started to abuse their powers, punishing normal people, and that was against the laws of the coven. Our family put curses on them to limit their powers and they were banished from our coven and sent to America—here."

"But how does that…? How do you have Powers? They go to the eldest male," Reid frowned.

"In your coven, yes," Lilah nodded. "That goes with the curses placed on your lineage. I've read about this, too. Since the Power is genetic, it can't be wiped out unless the line is killed off, but it was against the laws of the coven to kill off its members."

"That's why they were banished," Reid nodded, following.

"Yes, but there were curses that could limit Power, like the aging your ancestors suffered from," Lilah nodded. "And some chauvinistic pig decided to obliterate Power in the female lines, which meant fewer would get the Power."

"Have you Ascended yet?" Reid asked interestedly.

"No. My eighteenth birthday isn't until November," Lilah sighed. She played with the ring on her left ring-finger. Her mother's engagement ring; antique Edwardian. She glanced at Reid: he was silent, watching the waves. She touched his cheekbone delicately. Reid tensed, wincing slightly. She focused on the bruise, willing it to heal. It shrank and lightened in colour until it was gone.

"Enough with this," Reid sighed heavily, groaning as he stood up, offering his hands. He grinned down at her. "Let's go have some fun."

"What do you want to do?" Lilah asked. Whatever he had planned, they would always have a good time. He could even turn _shopping _for school supplies into something that made her sides split. He wiggled his nose thoughtfully and his face lit up with a grin, the dying sun making his white teeth glitter, and he grabbed her hand.

* * *

**A.N.:** Please review on the Coven idea, please. If I could put in a begging Smiley, I would!


	5. Tattoo

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Reid, I just like to play with him!

**Author's Note:** Okay, so here's another chapter for you! Kind of how self-destructive Reid can get, and how much fun the two can have together, and how much trouble they could get themselves into!

* * *

"Reid, are you sure your parents won't come home?" Lilah asked, glancing at each of the black windows of the house behind them. It was an impressive mansion in newbie American standards, even if it was Old Money.

"They could," Reid shrugged, tugging his t-shirts over his head. "But they don't live here." Lilah glanced at him warily.

"Reid, whose house is this?" she asked slowly, and Reid smirked as he let his jeans fall to the floor with his shirts and shoes, slipping into the hot-tub in his boxers.

"I dunno," Reid grinned from the hot-tub. He patted the water beside him. "Come on, get in. It's feels good." He relaxed, spreading his arms along the sides of the hot-tub and resting his head back. Lilah glanced down at him nervously, looked around the dark garden.

"I promise I won't let anything grab you," he smiled, and he won Lilah over: she shrugged her leather jacket off and stripped off her top and her ridiculously skinny jeans, and accepted his hand as she climbed into the tub in her black _Love _Agent Provocateur lingerie. _Ooh, it is nice_, she thought, albeit the water stung because it was so hot. They sat, Lilah resting her head on Reid's arm, watching the stars glint in the pitch-black sky. No clouds whatsoever. They were in for a good day tomorrow.

"So how many tattoos do you have?" Lilah asked, giving her an excuse to look at Reid's arms some more. His muscles were yummy.

"Six," Reid grinned. "What about you?"

"Four," Lilah smiled.

"I've only seen one," Reid said, sliding his arm around her waist and turning her over in the water, grabbing her hips and pulling her closer. "Can I see the others?"

"Well, one's on my ankle," she laughed softly. "A heart. And these two." She'd never shown anyone her other two tattoos, except the guy who'd done them and the girls she'd got them with. She reached for the trim of her black lace thong and tugged it down carefully, revealing an inch more of skin below her belly-button. Two tattoos; on her right, a tiny, detailed swallow, which meant more to her than the leagues she'd sailed, and on her left, a tiny kanji symbol.

"What's this for?" Reid asked softly, touching the tip of his finger to the kanji tattoo.

"It means 'life'," Lilah said softly. Reid gave her one of his lopsided grins and gently pressed his lips to the tattoo. Lilah laughed softly, hands on his shoulders, pushing herself back and into the water.

"I think you're getting ahead of yourself, Mr Garwin," she smirked tauntingly. He raised his palms.

"Sorry. What about the swallow? Why'd you get that?" Settling against the opposite side of the hot-tub, Lilah laughed softly.

"Figure it out," she smirked again. Reid got one of his devilish grins and his eyes twinkled playfully.

"You know, I like you. You don't blush like the other girls," Reid smiled. "I can't tease them like I can you. You fight back. So how'd you get so…_promiscuous_ going to private all-girl's school?"

"I wasn't in a convent!" she laughed. "And it wasn't a religious school, either. We partied harder than anyone we met."

"That explains Saturday night," Reid grinned. "And the tattoos?"

"I got them mostly because my friends wanted one and weren't brave enough to do it alone," Lilah shrugged. "And every time someone pissed me off, instead of Using against them, I'd pierce my ear. Until my dad reminded me I only had two ears, so I stopped piercing them."

"What was the last piercing you got?" Reid grinned. Lilah blushed furiously. Reid's grin widened. "Can I see it?" He floated in the water closer to her, nudging her nose playfully.

"If you're a good boy," Lilah breathed. Her chest felt constricted; she couldn't breathe properly when he was this close. He wrapped his arms gently around her waist and held her to him, so she had to put her arms around his neck, staring into each other's eyes, almost kissing…

"Oh, god!" She gasped sharply as a light in the first storey of the house burst amber light over the lawn. "Er, Reid…" She pushed him away and pointed over his shoulder, and Reid swore as they both jumped out of the hot-tub, grabbing their clothes, giggling a bit too loudly as they ran across the lawn, cringing as the sprinklers turned on and sprayed them with icy water.

"Good thing we didn't park on their driveway," Lilah gasped, throwing herself into the passenger seat. Neither was dressed completely, and she had to laugh at the sight of them; Reid, his jeans still not zippered, shoving his feet into his shoes as he tried to get his shirts over his chest without them sticking. She squirmed as she tugged on her ridiculously-tight jeans, shivering as her wet bra soaked her t-shirt. Reid took a deep breath, rubbing his face vigorously, rubbing his palms against his legs.

"Do you need to run through the sprinklers again?" Lilah asked teasingly, and Reid gave her a dangerous smirk as he grabbed her leg, just above the knee, where the pressure-point made her really ticklish. Lilah sighed and settled back into her seat, feeling sleepy and relaxed from their time in the pool, and extremely comfortable with Reid's hand resting on her thigh.

"So what do you want to do now?" she asked, immediately regretting the question as her brain worked in overdrive concocting various scenarios in the backseat.

"I have an idea," Reid grinned, driving away from the house.

"What?" Lilah asked warily, glancing at him.

"You'll just have to wait and see," Reid smirked. He drove them back to the dorms, but made her wait in the car while he ran back to his room and returned with a black sketchbook tucked under his arm. They drove back into town, parked outside a tiny, inconspicuous shop in one of the back-streets, with only a sign over the door naming the place 'Azgard', and Lilah realised where they were when she saw the folders stacked neatly and a few photographs of brilliant tattoos mounted on the wall. The place was tiny; one back room for piercings, one for tattoos, and a front desk. The woman behind it had many piercings, one in each cheek that caught Lilah's attention more than the tattoos covering her chest and arms.

"Hey Reid," she grinned, and Reid shook her hand, smiling. "What can I do for you today?"

"I've got another design I want," Reid grinned, and he was practically dancing he was squirming so much with excitement. "And Lilah's gonna have a tattoo done too."

"Am I?" Lilah raised her eyebrows. She was already warm in the small room, and that might make her faint. Luckily she'd already eaten something tonight. Weighing her options, she grinned at Reid. "I am."

"Do you know what you want?" the woman asked Reid. Lilah glanced at Reid: he wasn't even eighteen, but he had six tattoos already, so she guessed he must have a fake I.D. She had her passport; her birthday was November 2nd. She knew that all Americans mistook the birth-date as being February 11th because the month and day were switched around. Reid flipped the sketchbook open and showed her a very neat shaded illustration of a cross with feathery wings and a delicate ribbon twisting from the top to a wide space at the bottom big enough for a name perhaps to be tattooed there.

"Lilah, you wanna look?" Reid asked, glancing at her over his shoulder. She flicked through the pages; all his work, it was amazing, some pictures a bit too graphic and grotesque for her, but there were some she fell in love with immediately: The one she chose was a rose, the outlines, no colour, highly detailed and beautiful. It was about two inches tall.

"Want me to go first?" she asked. Now that she was here, with the prospect of getting in the chair again, she was excited. Reid smiled. She got her passport out and a wad of cash. The tattoo-artists came out of his little room and checked her I.D.—with an inconspicuous flash of Reid's eyes he accepted it without question—and the woman wrote up a release form. Lilah chose to have her tattoo positioned halfway down her back, on her spine, so she had to undo the clasp of her bra, and Reid sat in a chair in the corner of the little room, talking to her while the artist prepared everything. He showed her the brand-new sanitised needles and Lilah bared her back for him, hugging the chair.

"You okay?" Reid smiled. Lilah nodded, wincing and trying not to squirm as the first sting of the tattoo started. She breathed in sharply and tucked her chin down, clenching her toes. She'd forgotten how much it stung to have her other tattoos done—that was why they were so small. She'd screamed when she'd had her neck done, and her friends had had to keep her still so it could be finished without being ruined.

"I'm impressed," Reid smiled, taking her hand. "Tyler cried when he had his done."

"You're next, remember," the artist growled, but he was laughing.

"Tyler has a tattoo?" Lilah looked up, curious. "Where is it?" A deep chuckle behind her, and Reid smirked.

"Ah. No wonder he cried," she said tartly.

"Alright, you're done," the artist announced, and Lilah straightened up, surprised. She felt really hot and queasy, sick to her stomach, and drained.

"What does it look like?" Lilah asked, and Reid went to stand behind her, looking at her back.

"Man, it looks great. Here, I'll take a picture on my phone," Reid said ecstatically. The artist finished up on her back, wiping away the excess ink and bandaging it. Reid showed her the picture; swollen and red, but beautiful, just like Reid's drawing.

"Can I go and sit outside for a few minutes?" Lilah asked, fanning herself.

"Yeah, go ahead," Reid smiled understandingly. "Come back if you pass out." Lilah managed a tired laugh and left the room: Reid and the artist started talking about placement and size of Reid's newest addition. She wiggled out of her bra and tucked it into her bag and readjusted her t-shirt. Standing outside, she took great gulps of fresh sea air before returning into the oppressive warmth of the parlour.

Reid was in the chair when she got back, and he called for her to come into the little room; she glanced over his shoulder and saw the tattoo already beginning to form under the artist's skilled fingers, just under the nape of his neck. Reid was shirtless, red-faced, biting his lip and gripping the seat so hard his knuckles were white in contrast to his black fingerless gloves.

"You okay?" Lilah asked gently, smoothing the hair away from his slick forehead, tugging the seat forward so she could take his hands, being careful not to lean back on her new tattoo. It took longer for Reid's tattoo to be completed, only because of the complexity of the feathered wings, but when it was done, aside from the swelling, it was a perfect reproduction of Reid's sketch.

"Come on, let's go back to the dorms," Lilah said softly, helping Reid sit down on the pavement outside so he could stop trembling. She smoothed his hair from his forehead again and helped him up off the floor. He smiled down at her as she put an arm around his waist and slipped his arm around her shoulders. Lilah sighed contentedly and they walked to the car.

* * *

"Okay, you ready? One, two—THREE!" Kira heard the breathless laugh, pausing to look over the gallery to the foyer, where the moonlight gleamed on very pale blonde hair, and the tall black-haired girl with the incredible boobs braced herself as Reid jumped onto her back, latching his arm around her neck, almost tugging them backwards onto the floor. The girl giggled chokingly and leaned forward, so Reid was almost pitched over her head. She stumbled to the doorway of the foyer and Reid grabbed the doorframe. Lilah hooked her arms under Reid's knees and stumbled into the foyer. "Oh shit!" Kira thought maybe Lilah had seen her, but she just stopped and Reid giggled.

Kira had never heard Reid giggle. She didn't know he was capable of giggling. They teetered past the house-parents' room at the foot of the stairs.

"Stairs," Reid giggled again.

They made it to the top of the stairs without injury, and on the second floor they halted abruptly, two gleeful, guilty faces pressing their lips together to stifle their giggles as they saw her. Reid poked his head owlishly over Lilah's shoulder and ducked his head, pressing his lips to her shoulder.

"Hi Kira," Lilah said brightly. Reid giggled and waved. Kira stared at them. They had obviously been drinking. She wished she could have that much fun with someone—anyone, not just a boy as cute as Reid. Lilah wobbled and giggled as she walked forward, still carrying Reid, past her.

"You guys realise it's four a.m.," Kira hissed after them. She always got up at four to get ready for school, even on weekends. Reid glanced over his shoulder and shot her a grin as Lilah stumbled under his weight. Kira wondered just how she was able to carry that boy! It wasn't like he was overweight, quite the contrary, he was toned and hot. She watched the two stumble over to a dorm-room down the corridor. Their whispers carried down the silent hallway.

"This is my room," Reid slurred, pointing to the door nearest them. "This is mine. I live here."

"Are you sure?" Lilah laughed breathlessly, slamming into the door with a stifled yell. The door burst open and Kira cringed for them as they fell flat over the threshold. Reid burst into laughter, his face beautiful and angelic, and rolled off Lilah, who rolled onto her back and couldn't stop giggling, her body curling up as she laughed, tears sliding down her face. Kira's stomach ached for friendship like that, the ability to laugh so uninhibitedly. Then she heard Tyler's voice as she crept up the hallway towards the other staircase, just so she could see what was happening.

"Where've you guys been? We've been looking all over for you!" A lamp flared on, illuminating the windows above the panelling, and Tyler's deep, concerned voice whispered softly. Lilah's laughter stopped and Lilah and Reid both managed to get up off the floor, clinging to each other, shaking with suppressed giggles.

"Have you guys been drinking?" Tyler asked, a smile lifting up the corners of his mouth, sounding a little amused and disappointed.

"Only a little bit," Lilah said innocently, holding her fingers up and swaying slightly as she focused on measuring an inch between her thumb and forefinger, turning her flushed face into Reid's chest as she giggled again. Reid smiled guiltily at Tyler: he took Lilah's other arm and wrapped it around his neck, carrying her over to his bed. She passed out quickly, curled up, and Tyler pushed Reid to his bed.

"But I'm not sleepy," Reid protested indignantly, with a great slur.

"Yeah you are," Tyler encouraged, and Reid nodded, falling forward onto his nice, soft bed. Kira walked slowly to her own dorm, feeling disconsolate. She doubted her friends would help her like that, make sure she got home if she was drunk and take care of her. Aaron sure as hell wouldn't. She knew that already. He would be chasing the shortest skirt he could find. It was nice to know, though, that Lilah could see through him. For that reason, Kira respected her. Lilah wasn't interested in Aaron, despite every time Kira saw him, he was trying to get Lilah to go on a date with him.

* * *

Reid woke to his stomach bubbling with burning acid, his entire body felt too heavy and everything still spinning. He bolted upright and dove straight for the pail down beside his bedside cabinet. _URGH, gross_, he whimpered, heaving the contents of his stomach. Finally, his stomach settled.

"What did I _do_ last night?" he groaned, clutching his head as he lay down gingerly, testing his stomach. He glanced around the—thankfully—darkened room and settled on a note propped up on his chair. It was from Tyler originally: _I told the nurse you and Lilah got sick from bad clam-chowder last night and you're both excused from lessons. She'll be checking on you at lunchtime—T. _And a second part of the note was in a neat, elegant cursive he could barely decipher: _Reid, it's 11:43. I'll be back in ten minutes. The nurse is going to check on me in my room. She'll be checking on you next.—L. P.S. There's still Pepto-Bismol in the cabinet and a fresh loaf of bread for toast in your fridge._

He could not even remember anything past getting his tattoo with Lilah and was trying to decide whether he wanted to hug her when he saw her or smack her. He felt like he was going to die. Reid groaned, kneading the heels of his palms into his eyes, trying to block out the light. He felt around and put on the huge black sunglasses Tyler always used when he had a killer hangover. The bucket had been removed, no doubt Tyler had Used to clean it, and it was stored again under his bed. _So this is what he feels like when he's hung-over_, Reid thought, and the fleeting thought of being able to connect with his best-friend was squashed by the overwhelming urge to go to the bathroom, realising he was still wearing what he had last night, minus shoes and t-shirts. When he walked back into the bedroom he found Lilah sitting wrapped in a white towel dripping on his bed, her hair wet and curling, her hands clasped around a steaming mug of what he could smell wasn't coffee, but her preferred hot beverage, tea. A stack of dry toast stood on a plate on the chair beside Tyler's bed, and she munched on a slice while she watched the door for him, her clothes—jeans, t-shirts, underwear, folded neatly beside her, while she dried off.

"Nice of you to finally join me." Lilah's light voice was deadened by grogginess and misery of the headache equal in intensity to a jackhammer drilling her skull, the same as Reid was suffering. He nodded—instantly regretting it—and almost threw up again as he bent to open his trunk and extricate several t-shirts, a pair of jeans, and a pair of his boxers.

"Take a shower, you'll feel better," Lilah promised, in that croaky, deadened voice. Yeah, he did feel better, good enough to need a cold shower by the time he was fully awake, thinking about Lilah. Good thing there was no one else in the showers at noon on a Friday when they were all supposed to be in homeroom.

"How does your head feel?" she asked, squirming to sit up straighter as he sat down at the foot of the bed, shivering in the towel draped around his hips. "Dull, pounding, or axe-to-the-back-of-the-skull?"

"What was that last one?" Reid asked, wincing slightly as the clouds broke and noon sunlight streamed through the window. Lilah sighed heavily and stretched out on his bed on her stomach, tucking her arms beneath her, and he dressed quickly and hopped on the bed beside her.

"How'd you know the nurse was gonna come check on you?" he asked, frowning. Lilah sighed; he thought she might have fallen asleep. She dragged herself into a sitting position, careful of the weight placement on her tender back.

"Think," she said softly, crossing her legs facing him. She stared right into his eyes, and he thought she was reading his thoughts. "I am." He jumped back, and she cracked a grin. She could read his _thoughts_? _Oh god_, he thought, cringing internally at what she might have seen.

"Do you want me to teach you?" Lilah asked softly. Reid, always eager to do anything that involved Power, grinned. She settled herself right in front of him and he copied her pose, only because it was more comfortable, and licked his lips excitedly. "Okay, I want you to relax, relax your body, and stop thinking. And I'll know if you _are_…" Reid frowned bemusedly at her as he closed his eyes and let each individual muscle relax: It wasn't easy. The most amazing calm settled through him, and he got the feeling he wasn't just falling asleep, he was really at peace, like he was equal to all of nature. As he took a deep breath, he could taste the crispness of the turning leaves and the sharp tang of the salt in the air, the heat of the warming laundry downstairs. He could hear the worms eating at the earth beneath the building, the mice building their nests in the attic, the soft _whoosh _of the birds' wings as they cleaved through the air, could hear Lilah's heart beating in time to his own.

"Now focus." The voice came from far away, soothing, non-threatening, gently guiding him like a whisper through the leaves outside. "Listen to the voices." It began slowly, like going on a long car journey with the knowledge you'd get to the beach at the end, the soft _rush_ of the waves lapping at the shore which was his mind. And then the whisperings got clearer, he picked out individual tones, expressions, and he couldn't work out whether the voices were spoken or inside their heads.

"What do you want to hear?" Lilah's lyrical voice asked, gently prodding him. He licked his lips again unconsciously, focusing on wanting to hear Lilah's thoughts. He focused on hearing the familiar lyrical thrush, and found her voice.

_Well done_, she whispered. _Open your eyes._ She smiled at him as he opened his eyes again; everything had changed, colours were more brilliant, lines were more supple, textures were more amazing to touch, even the cotton of his grey t-shirt-cotton duvet.

"The best part is, Caleb can't accuse you of Using," Lilah said softly, "because you can do that any time from now on, now that you know how to do it. You just have to focus. In time it will become second-nature."

"How many times have you listened to my thoughts?" Reid asked, red-faced and nervous. If she knew what he thought every time her face came into his mind… She smiled bashfully.

"I haven't, except just now, when I heard your voice in my head," Lilah said, and glancing into her eyes, he knew she was telling the truth. _This mind-reading thing is awesome_, Reid grinned. Now he had one-upped Caleb. He bet Caleb didn't know how to read peoples' minds.

_Listen_, her voice said sharply, and he focused, frowning. Outside, he could hear their female house-parent's voice, though he knew she wasn't speaking aloud. It was weird to listen to what other people were thinking. There was no logic; memories flitted across a blank canvas chaotically, emotions ran rampant until controlled by that person.

…_probably just drunk. I swear, one of these days, he's gonna wind up on the side of a milk-carton,_ she was thinking, clearly aggravated. _His friends always covering up for him. This is the second weekend in a row…I don't know why his parents couldn't keep him at home. He's more than a handful we could cope without having to deal with…_

"There are downsides to hearing people's thoughts," Lilah added sadly, and Reid wondered just how many people shared this view of him, and who had thought what about Lilah. No wonder the girls in their classes were always being Used on. "I'll hide. Act really sick."

_Easy_, he smirked at her, and she grinned as she crept into the corner of the room by Tyler's desk. He stared as she all but disappeared, blending in perfectly with the panelling and the wallpaper, the cord of the lamp. He kicked his shoes off, messed up his hair, splashed water over his face from the glass on his bedside cabinet, curled up tight under his duvet and pretended to shiver and moan. The knock on the door came softly, and he could hear the nurse sigh heavily, the doorknob rattled and she appeared, disgruntled and—he sensed it before her features betrayed it—surprised to see him.

_I thought it was that other boy, Tyler_, the nurse thought, thrown off.

"How are you feeling? Your friend told me you had a bought of food-poisoning," the nurse said soothingly.

_Tell her you'd rather just sleep it off_, Lilah's voice guided him. This telepathy thing _rocked_.

_Alright, __Jean Grey_, he thought, and he could sense rather than see Lilah's smirk.

"I was up half the night puking," Reid moaned, managing to make himself look extremely pale and pathetic. "I think I'll be okay after a few hours' sleep."

"Alright," the nurse bit her lip, frowning concernedly at him. "Well, lessons will be over in a few hours, and your friend can check up on you. If you feel any worse, just call down to your house-parents, alright." Reid nodded mutely, pouting into his pillow, letting his eyes slide closed tiredly. He listened as the nurse bustled out of the room and closed the door behind her, admonishing whoever had given the restaurant spoilt clams. Having the Power made everything so easy. Screw Caleb and his oath.

"When your father sends you the books from England," Reid said carefully, as Lilah reappeared at the foot of his bed, smirking lightly, "will you lift the curse on me?"

"I thought you wouldn't have the balls to ask," she grinned.

* * *

**A.N.:** Please review. I liked this chapter, personally. Since I'm afraid of needles, I'd never sit for a tattoo, so I'm living vicariously through my characters!


	6. Welch

**A.N.:** I am on _fire_ with all these updates!... I have to get me a better life... Anyway, Aaron's not the only welcher when it comes to Reid and bets!

* * *

It was difficult for Lilah to believe she'd only been in Massachusetts for a full week, Saturday to Saturday. Lessons had flown by, they always did, and overnight swim-practice had become the most anticipated time of the day, beating lunchtime—mostly because she got to see Reid in his teeny tiny little swim-shorts. With Nathaniel Parry's help—Pogue's gorgeous movie-star-handsome dad—Lilah now owned her very own left-hand-drive manual vintage Mini: Red, glittery, with a great engine built by the same guy who repaired Pogue's bike, new upholstery and a CD player. Her father had already paid a years' worth of insurance, and considering her grades were excellent, her insurance was cheaper than, say, Reid's.

She was standing at the DMV with Nathaniel, passport, greencard, driver's licences in-hand, waiting to take her test. He had told her she'd only have three weeks to get her licence or she'd have to wait—and she'd never liked relying on her own two legs when four wheels at 80mph would do. Nathaniel had been the one, on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon when she had finished lessons and he had returned from Boston, to take her out to the dells in the Mini and get her used to driving left-hand-drive. She'd learned on a manual, so it was easy, except she had to remember that the stick-shift was on her right rather than her left.

"Relax, you'll do great," Nathaniel smiled encouragingly. He was pink-faced and sweaty in the overcrowded, overheated office, but grinned excitedly. "You're wearing a low-cut top, you'll be fine. If you screw up, just stick out your chest." Lilah rolled her eyes and adjusted the neckline of her low-cut backless t-shirt, smacking his chest playfully as she would his son. It wasn't that she wanted to cheat her way into getting a licence; she didn't want anything rubbing against her new tattoo.

"So, Pogue tells me you're getting really friendly with Reid," Nathaniel said casually, but not casually enough. Another eye-roll.

"Yes, I have. He's very sweet," Lilah said, carefully choosing to avoid looking at her guardian, or listen to his thoughts. She'd seen his smirk; that was enough.

"Did you get the tattoo with him?" Nathaniel asked, again very casual. Lilah reached back and flicked the fabric of her top. "You don't have to hide it. Look at mine." Nathaniel raised the back of his t-shirt to show a beautiful spread of feathery angel's wings.

"I like hanging out with Reid, he's really fun to be with," Lilah smiled wistfully. Sitting here, she'd prefer to be with Reid. This afternoon he was at Nicky's—with a promise to her that she wouldn't find him battered up in the back of the bar—with the boys, and Sarah was meeting her at the little lingerie boutique Lilah had come across walking with Reid after their tattoos.

"Do you _like _him?" Nathaniel teased, smirking, and when Lilah blushed and looked away pointedly, he chuckled. She _did_ like Reid, a lot. She had a lot of fun with him, laughed more than she could ever remember doing, could flirt and tease and he would just toss it back with a lopsided smirk and a pucker of those sculpted lips. She wanted to get him out of his jeans. But she could never let him know that. "You know, I've known the boys all their lives, and Reid was always the most affectionate, the least likely to cause a squabble or bully the others."

"What changed?" Lilah asked. Reid was still affectionate, cheeky and charming, but there was that aggression that got him into fights.

"He got his Powers," Nathaniel sighed. "And it's difficult not to Use once you've just got them, I'm sure you understand that." Lilah nodded. She knew she was different from when she got her Power. "It's difficult on all of them to have to hide a major part of who they really are. Does he know?" Nathaniel and Elizabeth, Pogue's mother, knew all about Lilah, and her awesome Power, but Pogue and the boys didn't know anything yet. She didn't even think their parents knew enough about her to realise she had the Power.

"Yes," she said quietly, glancing at Nathaniel. "He saw me Using when I broke up a fight between him and three boys at our school. So I told him everything." Nathaniel nodded thoughtfully, his smooth forehead drawn in a frown.

"Good, that's good that you've told someone," Nathaniel smiled. "It always helps to be able to talk to someone."_…wish I could talk to Pearly_, he sighed, eyes roving over Lilah's face. _She's so like her mother it's like Pearl's smiling out at me from those eyes_. Lilah smiled as she looked away, hearing her name, and Nathaniel smirked as a short middle-aged man with no wedding-band waved Lilah over.

_Damn_, she heard him moan, and strutted over, smirking. She handed over her paperwork, he took her outside and she got into the Mini. Half an hour later, she pulled off a perfect bay-park in the DMV parking-lot and the pervy little man grinned as he handed her the pass form.

"Let's go get that licence," he leered, and Lilah quickly exited the car, striding over to the office.

"How'd you do?" Nathaniel asked, beaming as she grinned and smacked his outstretched palm. "Good job."

* * *

Reid was shooting pool, doing his best not to aggravate Ryan enough to cause a fight to please Lilah, and he was winning without Using, so Caleb could back off. He had distinguished himself last year in making combo shots whenever he wanted to: it was easy money. The game was for cash, of course.

"Hey, look who's here," Tyler grinned, clapping a hand on his shoulder, and Reid glanced over to the bar: tight dark-wash denim mini, patterned stockings, knee-high slouchy black boots with three-inch wedge heels, and a backless top showing off a rose tattoo halfway down her spine. He grinned, took his money from Ryan and strutted over to the bar, clapping a hand on Lilah's ass. She jumped, straightened up and grinned as she saw who it was. She wrapped her arms around him in a hug, which for Reid was over too quickly, and slipped an arm around his waist, still letting him keep his hand on her ass.

"Hey, how'd your test go?" he asked. She held up a shiny brand-new Massachusetts driver's licence.

"And I didn't even have to flash for it," she smirked, shrugging her shoulders slightly to show off the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra underneath the flimsy tattoo-patterned cotton. Reid grinned.

"What've you been up to today?" Lilah asked, glancing over his shoulder at the pool-tables, where Tyler was playing another game with Ryan.

"Let's see," he said, tapping his chin thoughtfully with his fingers, "I got to sleep at about two a.m. thinking there was someone looking at me through the window, I woke up, showered, got dressed, and came here. Now I'm talking to you." Lilah laughed softly, shaking her head.

Yesterday afternoon, while they were supposed to be recovering from 'food-poisoning', they had gone to the video-arcade, watched _Halloween _(Lilah had been holding his hand from the first half-hour 'til the end, and he had just now recovered feeling in his fingers) at the IMAX theatre, and had dinner at _California Pizza Kitchen_.

Tyler had been developing his Look of Death all afternoon, and when they got back to the dorms—completely sober but giggly from too much sugar at Cold Stone Ice-Creamery—he had dumped the notes of the afternoon's lectures, the homework assignments and the fact they had missed a pop-quiz on the first settlers in History on them. Reid rather admiringly thought Lilah had probably already done the homework before she came out for the afternoon. He'd wait till midnight tomorrow night before cracking a book open. He always did, and he always got mediocre grades because of it. He was an underachiever and he excelled at it.

"So what're you doin' later?" Reid asked nonchalantly. There was no way he could sucker her into watching another freaky-scary movie again—she'd wanted to see a Garrett Hedlund movie called _Death Sentence_, but maybe she'd be up for going to see that, or going to _Chevy's_.

"Well, Aaron keeps trying to corner me into going out with him," Lilah sighed exasperatedly, wrinkling her cute little button nose. Anger and jealousy boiled in his stomach as he glanced over his shoulder; Aaron wasn't with his boys at the pool-tables. He'd probably found a less-pretty girl to fall back on when Lilah had rejected him. Probably one of Kira's hot-looking cheerleader friends with low self-esteem problems. "But I told him I was meeting up with you and the boys." Nicky handed her the food she'd asked for; grilled-cheese sandwich cut in half, fries, a little pot of mayo, a Diet Coke, and Reid handed over a note before Lilah could get the money out of her coin-purse.

"You didn't have to do that," she smiled.

"It's Ryan's money," Reid smirked, glancing over his shoulder. "I beat him at pool. And I didn't even have to flash for it." Lilah rolled her eyes amusedly, sucking on her straw, and they walked over to a little table where Pogue normally sat.

"So why aren't you out with Sarah or something? I thought she was going to _Mix_," Reid said. _Mix_ was the cocktail bar that was substandard in checking IDs and was frequented by the _elite _of Spenser, mostly girls dressed up for a night out.

"Nah, I'm too tired," Lilah sighed, and she really sounded it. She rested her elbow on the table and tucked her hair behind her ear before leaning her face on her palm, smiling softly at him. Reid was tired, too. The only reason he'd come out tonight was in the hope of seeing _her_. Otherwise, he would love to have curled up into a ball under his duvet and slept off his exhaustion. They hadn't got back to the dorms until one a.m., having seen the late-showing of _Halloween_, and the night before he'd been totally plastered. It all added up.

"I think we wear each other out," he said sagely, stealing some fries. He liked how Lilah sat cross-legged on her chair like a child but ate her greasy grilled-cheese so _daintily_ even at _Nicky's Lounge_. It wasn't exactly the most white-collar place in town. Lilah laughed softly as she ate, offering him the tray of fries. When she finished eating, and had danced one song with him, they migrated to the pool-tables with Tyler and Pogue.

"You any good at this game?" Lilah asked, racking up the balls.

"I'm okay," Reid shrugged, chalking a cue.

"Care to make a friendly wager?" Lilah asked, grinning mischievously. That grin made him nervous, but exhilarated.

"Sure."

"Alright," she smiled luxuriously, "if I win this game, then you have to spend the night with me." He almost choked on his soda. _Did I just hear that right?_ he thought. _'Cause that sounded like she wanted to…_

"That's _friendly_," he laughed nervously. Lilah smirked.

"Well, if the stakes are too high, just say so," she said, and he could distinguish every syllable of her refined English accent even over the tumult of the bar that was getting rowdier every half-hour.

"Well, it's a very one-sided bet," Reid said.

"Not really. If you lose, then we both win," Lilah smirked. He gave her a look. "Alright," she laughed softly, "what if you win?"

"Then you spend the night with me," Reid smirked. Her eyes flashed brightly, the dimples appeared at the corners of her mouth.

"Sounds good," she said quietly, keeping her eyes intently on his.

"Cleaning my car." _That's safe enough_, he thought. She made him nervous. How could he spend so much time with her flirting casually, and now that it came down to it, he couldn't handle outright flirting with intent to do more?

"If that's what gets you in the mood," Lilah smiled, pressing close against him so he could feel the very-there curves as Tyler broke the triangle. "So is that a wager?"

"It's a bet," Reid nodded, shaking her hand. He tingled all over with just that little bit of contact. So they started playing: Reid and Tyler against Lilah and Pogue. No Using. Lilah was playing better than she'd ever played in her life—without Using—and that was telling her something. Reid was getting more and more nervous with every ball she sank and had to work very hard to keep up. As much as he wanted to spend the night with her—doing whatever she had planned—it just didn't seem right, sleeping with her because of a bet. He didn't see her as some great prize, although she would be worth the competition.

"Have you checked the score lately?" she asked tauntingly across the table, after she sank another ball. "What am I up, three balls?"

"It's _very _early in the game, little girl. Shut up and shoot," Reid said, bending to take his shot. _I have got to win this game_, he thought desperately. He sank his ball and Tyler grinned, although the smile faded into a disgruntled wrinkle of his nose as he had to break a cluster of balls.

"Hey, what's goin' on with you and Lilah?" Pogue asked quietly, glancing over to where Lilah was sipping her soda, adjusting her top, watching Tyler intently.

"Nothing," Reid said innocently. Pogue didn't buy it.

"That's why she's been mad-dogging you the entire night," he smirked, eyebrows raised.

"We made a bet," Reid said.

"What _kind_ of bet?" Pogue asked, though by his tone it was suggested he already knew what was at stake.

"A friendly bet." He took a gulp of soda, hiding his face.

"_How _friendly?" Pogue asked, setting his jaw reprovingly. Reid watched Tyler break the cluster and sink one; he had another shot.

"_Extremely _friendly," he said quietly, glancing at his friend from the corner of his eye.

"Where was I when your parents were dropping you on your head?" Pogue asked, rumpling Reid's hair patronisingly. He jerked his head away, smiling, and Lilah set up her shot.

"Hey, uh, Lilah, did you get that infection cleared up?" Pogue asked, and she overestimated her shot and missed it, sending the ball ricocheting off the sides. She rested her forehead against the felt and when she raised her head, she was sucking her cheeks in, giving him the Look. But even with Pogue's interference, Lilah only had one more ball to sink, and she did it easily.

"Well, that's it," she smiled, stalking up to him, smirking that taunting little dimpled smile. "And, uh, did _I _win?"

"Yeah, yeah, shut up," Reid sighed. "You didn't expect me to actually pay up, did you?"

"Yes," Lilah said brightly, her face illuminated by the whiteness of her smile.

"Would you really want me there against my will?" he asked smilingly. He had warmed to the idea.

"Absolutely," Lilah smirked, which got Reid thinking just _what_ kind of a girl she really was. He sighed and handed his cue over.

"Alright, a bet's a bet," he said, walking with her over to their table.

"Would it be so bad?" Lilah asked softly, as she retrieved her bag and purse. Reid glanced at her; _Would what be so bad?_

"Spending the night with me," she said softly, gazing up at him. She was completely serious now, searching his face. "Spending the night with me, would it be so terrible?" Reid licked his lips nervously.

"It might be nice," he said, his voice constricted. He was losing all ability to think as all the blood rushed downwards; she was standing so close, noses almost touching, eyes soft and twinkling at him.

"Just _nice_?" Her eyebrows shot up and her eyes widened.

"It would be…incredible," he mumbled nervously, feeling heat flushing his face. The dimples appeared again, her lips were so beautifully sculpted and moist. She nodded her head slightly.

"Yes, it would be," she agreed softly, in barely more than a whisper. She licked her lips and sighed softly. "Not tonight."

"What?" he blurted.

"Not on a bet. Not tonight, and not on a bet," Lilah said, stepping back, slipping her jacket on, sure to shrug her shoulders so her breasts bounced slightly, showing him what she had offered and just like that, taken away without ever letting him… He was more than indignant as she smirked and strutted away, flicking the hair out of her collar, her hips wiggling under the skirt.

"YOU _WELCHER_!" he shouted after her, utterly appalled. _Damn_.

"Hey, I thought you guys had a…" Pogue said, glancing at the doorway Lilah had just disappeared through. Reid just couldn't stop staring. _Not tonight… Some other night, then. _He grinned. All was not lost. _'Yes, it would be'_. She'd thought it would be incredible to spend the night together, too. There was still hope for him!

"She _played _me!" Reid said indignantly. Tyler had no clue what was going on and gave them both a weird look. "That's somethin'_ I_ would do. That _bitch_! She has _sunk_ to my level like a _rock_! I don't believe it, she—she won't pay up."

* * *

**A.N.:** Inspired _greatly_ by _Roseanne_ series one, episode five with George Clooney! Yum. Tell me what you think!


	7. Bridge

**Disclaimer:** Tsk! I think you know by now!

**Author's Note**: YAY! Many reviews, lots of Favourites! I am very happy! So, as a reward, here's another chappie for you.

* * *

From waging bets with sex as the stakes, it was more than cold-shower for Reid on Sunday morning to have Lilah act like he was Public Enemy No. 1 or something. She was _cruel _to him, and to anyone who crossed her path. On Monday Lilah walked into the History lecture-theatre and chose to sit next to some nobody he didn't even know the name of rather than him. And he was being adorable this morning!

"It's nice to know she's not talking to you, either," Sarah said, drawing her almost botox-smooth forehead in a frown. "I thought she was just giving _me_ the cold-shoulder for borrowing her pink sweater yesterday." Reid narrowed his eyes. He tapped his pen irritatedly against his notebook, watching Lilah as she wrote continuously, filling pages of notes and flow-charts. Yesterday she had not brought up their bet—and lack of payment—once, and it was annoying Reid. More than a little bit, and more than enough to be hurt by the way she was ignoring him.

_She's playing you hot and cold_, he thought, but he couldn't even convince himself of that. Because why would she be mean to Aaron? No, why would she be _meaner_ to Aaron, or bite Reid's head off this morning when he'd asked how she was? Her bad mood continued all day, until swim-practice. She was doing a breast-stroke exercise, and Coach chose to call her out on her—perfect—technique. Or rather, Pogue chose to call her on it on Coach's behalf.

"Lilah, come here, you got your arms wrong."

"It's not brain-surgery, Pogue," Lilah said shortly, glaring.

"Hey, what's with the attitude?" Pogue asked gently, frowning concernedly down at Lilah.

"What's with your life?" Lilah retorted breezily from the water. Reid watched her cautiously. If she got angry, she might Use, and that would be messy. Especially since neither Pogue, Tyler nor Caleb knew she had the Power. "Aren't you embarrassed that the most important thing in your life is the correct technique for a swim-stroke?"

"Listen, I'm sorry that you and Reid didn't work out," Pogue said carefully, and Reid shot him a warning look with wide eyes, "but don't go all Mariah on me."

"You think this is about _Reid_. You're not even close, you're not even in the same postcode as close," Lilah said, her voice rising.

"Then what's wrong?" Pogue asked tenderly.

"What's wrong is how _pointless _all of this is," Lilah said desperately, and Reid could sense real grief overwhelming her. _Focus_, he told himself, frowning at Lilah, trying to penetrate her thoughts. Her brain was chaotic, a blurring montage of thousands of different memories and bits of information all whirling around, all of them focusing on either him, Reid, or her father, her mother, schoolwork, swim-practice, the unkindness of Kira and Aaron's infatuation with her.

"Don't say that," Pogue frowned, but he kept his words gentle.

"It's true," Lilah said, and her expression had turned wild. "What difference does it make if you're going out with one of the popular kids or you go to the right parties, or you know the technique to some stupid stroke to do at some inconsequential meet that I could _care less about_?" And with that, she pulled herself up the chrome ladder and stalked off, whipping her swimming-cap off with a _snap_ and striding determinedly to the girls' showers.

Pogue turned to stare at Reid. He shrugged, wide-eyed. _What the fuck was that all about_? he heard Pogue think, mirroring his own thoughts.

After practice had ended, and the chatter of "new girl" Lilah's behaviour had picked up, Reid showered quickly and went in search of Lilah. He tried her on her cellphone (the number he had acquired on Friday) but there was no answer, it went straight to voicemail.

On Tuesday, Lilah wasn't in lessons, and word from Sarah was that she hadn't come back to the dorms last night after practice. She'd left her phone in her dorm and, of course, they couldn't call home, because home for her was two-thousand miles away. Pogue told them she hadn't turned up on his doorstep, and hadn't left a message on their answer-machine, the same with Caleb when Reid asked. She'd almost disappeared off the face of the planet. Reid had never been anxious about anyone in his life except the boys, and maybe Sarah last year when Chase Collins had stolen her from the dance. But this was different. He was jumpy, his heart raced, eyes alert for any sign of her as he walked through town after practice.

"Maybe she's out pinching babies," Kira suggested tartly, when he asked the girls around her dorm whether they'd seen her.

* * *

Lilah sat on an intricately-carven stone bench, glaring at a black marble headstone etched with the words:

Pearl Parry-Shakespeare

Beloved Wife and Mother

Always love.

July 13, 1964-

September 9, 1991.

She struck a silver Zippo and held it up to a cigarette perched between her lips, but the flame flickered and died in the breeze that made her hair billow around her and dislodged the crisp leaves already turning in the Massachusetts autumn. She tried again, but it wouldn't light.

"Come on," she growled, giving up with a huge sigh.

"There are a lot of smokers in this place," someone commented, and Lilah glanced up: Who the hell would be coming to the cemetery at six o'clock at night? Apart from her, that was. The dark-eyed woman was beautiful, real timeless glamour right out of the thirties or something, with a silk _Chanel _scarf wrapped over her dark hair, leather gloves, matching heels. It was Caleb's mother, Evelyn Danvers, as she had introduced herself to Lilah on Saturday when she had come with Caleb into town to meet Sarah after they'd gone shopping.

"I don't really smoke," Lilah said glumly, tossing the brand-new packet of cigarettes back into her purse. Her dad would probably have killed her if he even caught a whiff of cigarette-smoke about her. Of course, he was dying of cancer so he couldn't really talk. He was pretty much a living reason why she shouldn't smoke. Evelyn made a thoughtful noise and walked silently to the grave, laying down a bouquet of stunning burnt-ochre sunflowers bound with chocolate-brown ribbon. Her mother's favourite flowers. _You should have brought her some_, she thought. Evelyn kissed her fingers and pressed them to the top of the marble, whispered something Lilah didn't hear and came to sit beside her, smoothing the seat of her skirt beneath her.

"She was a firecracker of a woman, your mother," Evelyn smiled wistfully, the dying sun illuminating the silver hairs among the black. Caleb had her dark eyes and curling lashes.

"I've only ever seen a picture of her," Lilah said resentfully. Her father seemingly went deaf whenever she asked about her mother.

"She used to swim for the Spenser team too," Evelyn said, and Lilah's shoulders fell guiltily, playing with her fingers. Evelyn moved the sheet of Lilah's hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear, rubbing his finger against her cheek. "She was my best friend in the whole world." Evelyn's voice choked with emotion. "You've got all of her looks. And she was a wily one, just like you, Caleb tells me. Your daddy didn't stand a chance." Lilah smiled tearfully. She hated not knowing about her mother.

"You know, my brother Christopher is buried here," Evelyn sighed heavily. "I lost him just about the same time as your mother," she waved her gloved hand upwards elegantly, "passed away. We had an argument just before he died, and I didn't go to the funeral. But now I come by and visit, apologise and tell him about Caleb. It always makes this week a tough one." Lilah stared at the tombstone, but somehow the sunflowers kept drawing her attention away from the cold unfeeling dead stone.

"They're all tough," she whispered. Evelyn nodded in agreement, and they sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the unmoving stone, and the sturdy petals of the sunflowers that flickered slightly in the breeze.

"Reid has called me asking about you," Evelyn said after a little while, softly, almost as if she was talking to herself. Lilah made herself look up. _Reid's worried about me_, she thought, gasping softly. Evelyn smiled wistfully to herself. "He was always a sweet boy. He's worried about you."

"I remember the first time I ever saw my William," she sighed. "He was on the junior-varsity football team, a quarterback, and he had his arm broken the first game of the season. He missed a week of school, and I was at my wit's end by the end of that week, scared to death he'd never come back." Lilah glanced at her. What was she trying to say? Evelyn smiled and gently pressed her lips to Lilah's temple.

"Don't stay out here too long, my dear," she said softly. "You'll freeze." She got up, bid goodbye to Pearl, as if she could hear her, and the soft _crunch_ of the grass got softer and softer as she walked back to the street.

* * *

Lilah didn't meet anyone until Wednesday lunchtime. She'd snuck back into the dorms after midnight and had left before Sarah woke up, and had spent her hours racing through Ipswich in her zippy little Mini. The light was red, hanging over the intersection, and she glared at it, waiting for it to change. The passenger door suddenly burst open and Reid jumped inside, slamming the door as he tugged on his seatbelt. She didn't even acknowledge him until she was setting the revs, counting down. She knew this timer now.

"If I were you, I would get out of the car now," Lilah warned viciously. She wasn't in the mood to see anyone, even her Reid.

"Not until you tell me why you're so pissed," Reid said resiliently, gripping the dashboard as she released the handbrake and squealed across the intersection. She'd been in the car when Reid was driving, several times, and he drove as recklessly as her, but she was scaring him. She raced through the streets, and as she reached 80 and pitched over the single-lane bridge, flying over the other side before she touched down bouncily, right in the path of a Defender. Reid reached out and jerked the steering-wheel, so the car bounced over the dirt of a little lay-by by the footpath along the riverbank before she stopped.

Reid stared at her, shocked, wide-eyed, hand still on the wheel. Tears welled in her eyes, burning, gasping as she gripped the wheel with white knuckles, clenching her eyes shut as they burned from her mascara. She had driven over that bridge twenty times today—and nothing had happened. She heard the passenger seat creak, and shivered as she felt Reid lean closer, but he didn't touch her.

"She was driving over the bridge, on the way to pick me up from the Parrys'. The driver of the lorry didn't see her, and he knocked her car over the edge and into the water," she sniffed. "She couldn't break the window to get out." She gasped and shuddered.

When she'd lived in England, she couldn't imagine it, her mother's death. But here, the very same bridge, everything came in vivid flashes of film, like she was watching a flickering movie-screen, broken and disjointed. The illuminating beam of her mother's smile from the photograph, and the overwhelming franticness as the glass creaked ominously, the car sank like an anvil, murky water pressed from all sides, the seatbelt wouldn't unbuckle. And the lorry, she could picture it, multiple-times the size of the Land Rover, coming straight towards her, unable to control the car as it was pitched backwards into the brick-and-flint wall, not knowing the end was coming as the water rushed up to meet her.

Lilah had just had the life scared out of her. She hadn't really meant to go that fast. Did her mother think that, now? Could she hear Evelyn when she had spoken at the cemetery? Could she hear Lilah's thoughts now? Had she sent Reid to the car so he could jerk the steering-wheel? Her little guardian-angel.

Reid undid his seatbelt and reached his arms around her, pulling her gently into a hug. She relaxed into the warmth of his body as he kept her close in the safe confines of his strong arms. She hugged Reid, closing her eyes and breathing him in as she cradled her head in his shoulder; warm, musky, clean, no cologne, only subtle deodorant, and his shampoo. She stopped trembling, the scare of the almost-accident wearing away quickly, and sniffed miserably, leaning away from him a little bit. He looked at her sombrely, his normally brilliant blue eyes darkened with emotion. He got the sleeve of his hoodie and gently wiped the tears—and mascara—from her cheeks, pressing his lips together thoughtfully as he watched hers.

A tremendous sense of calm enveloped her as she sat with Reid's arms around her, hugging her tenderly, warmth enveloping her as she shivered in her flimsy t-shirt. Reid smiled softly and shrugged off his jacket, handing it to her. She tugged it on with a tiny smile of thanks, shivering even as she adjusted to the black jacket and the warmth it had absorbed from Reid's body.

"I suppose nobody really has it all together, huh," he said softly, cocking his head to one side, shaking his hair out of his lovely eyes. Lilah shook her head. "You miss her?"

"Can't really miss somebody you've never met," Lilah said miserably. Something strange flickered in Reid's eyes, not the Power, just _something_. That was what sucked the most: she couldn't even miss her mother. She'd been ten months old when her mother was killed. All she'd ever known was her dad. "My father wouldn't even tell me anything about her when I asked."

"Sucks," was all Reid said, and she didn't feel like prying into his mind to see what he was really thinking and just couldn't put into words. It was enough that he was here with her now.

"It's not fair," she said miserably. Reid sighed softly, looking out the windshield.

"I know," he said darkly, glancing back at her. "Do you want to…I don't know, go to Nicky's and find the guys or something?"

"I think I like talking to you for a minute," Lilah said, glancing into his eyes. She thought she had the measure of Caleb now: the eldest, he assumed dominance in the group and authoritarian responsibility. They all looked up to Caleb, but Lilah liked level-headed and mellow Pogue more. But she liked Reid the most. All she could think about—and she had to work hard to make sure Reid didn't see it on her mind—was kissing him. She'd woken up this morning right in the good part of a really hot dream.

She played with her tongue-piercing, something she always did when she was thinking hard. It was her equivalent of chewing gum or a pencil-tip. He gazed at her as if he'd never seen anything more beautiful, eyes always flickering down to her lips. _He's going to kiss me_, she thought, mentally doing a little happy-dance. Was this it, was he going to kiss her? He was going to make the first move? She hadn't known whether he'd take their bet seriously—until she'd seen his crushed gape of incredulity when she'd denied him the bargained-for night. He cocked his head to one side thoughtfully.

"I didn't notice your tongue-piercing before," he said softly, and Lilah blushed. _Oh_.

"I get a lot of compliments on it," she said softly, looking down at her hands clasped in her lap, and Reid chuckled. "So what do we do now?" Reid glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

"Let's go back to the dorms," he sighed. "It's almost dinner." Lilah smiled and rolled her eyes, turning the key in the ignition. _He's always hungry_, she thought.

* * *

Reid sat frowning broodily at his boot, smacking his little silver cellphone against his chin, silently debating with himself. He dialled the number he'd punched into his keypad thousands of times before, and the voicemail kicked in. He went through to message number 7.

"_Hi Reid, it's Mommy. Listen, we're about to board, so I'll call you when we land in L.A. and your daddy and I were talking, and when we get back, we're gonna have dinner at Macaroni Grill, your favourite. We'll be home in a week, if I can wait that long! I miss you already. I love you, baby._" He smiled, eyes brimming over. He loved his mother's voice—sweet, light, carefree. The North Carolina lilt made it always affectionate.

"Hey," Tyler said softly, nudging his foot. Reid jumped; he hadn't even noticed his roommate walk in. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Listenin' to voicemail," Reid said, his voice dead even to himself. Tyler stilled, glancing over his shoulder as he tidied his bed. 'Voicemail', the key word whenever Reid was feeling morbid, depressed and self-loathing. Voicemail, the last time he heard his mother's voice before her flight from Boston to L.A. was hijacked and flown into North Tower.

"Don't start doing that to yourself again," Tyler said concernedly. Tyler knew all about Reid's troubles. "I thought you were getting over that. I mean it's been, what, five years?"

After his parents had died in 9/11, he'd gone off the deep end, and he'd never really been able to swim back to safe waters. It was Tyler who'd guided him partway back, but he couldn't do it all himself. He had been eleven years old. His second week at Spenser. He had recorded his mother's message onto a cassette, a CD; it was on his iPod, his laptop. When he'd first gotten his Power, he had used it to vent all his pent-up emotions. The guys thought he was going insane. He was, with grief, until Caleb told him his dad was dying. And suddenly he had someone to relate to. For just a little while, Caleb outranked Tyler in friendship.

"Can't help it," Reid mumbled, taking a photograph off his bedside cabinet, examining it. His mother beamed at a camera facing her from another angle; it got her in a three-quarter view, the square of her face, the high cheekbones, the dimples he had inherited, the stunning eyes, the pale blonde hair curled like a 1930s movie-star, the lipstick red and vibrant, making her white teeth glitter, the tiny straps of her black rosette dress on her slim shoulders. It was his favourite photograph of her. She looked so elegant, so classy; so _otherworldly_.

He took the photograph, and the one of his dad; a Red Sox game for his eleventh birthday, fifth grade, both of them wearing navy Red Sox caps and grinning identical cheeky smirks, Reid's sweet, chubby dimpled face dusted with sugar from a Churro, his dad grinning with a hot-dog in his hand as he slung his arm around Reid affectionately. He walked out of his dorm and went upstairs, to Lilah's room, where he found her face-down on her bed, listening to music. His mother's favourite was Eva Cassidy. He touched her waist softly and sank onto the bed as she rolled over and curled up, sitting cross-legged, plucking the earphones out of her ears.

"Hi. What's that?" she asked, cocking her head to one side, looking at the photograph frames.

"These are my parents," Reid said, placing the pictures on her chocolate-brown duvet. Her eyes flickered to the pictures and she seemed to be absorbing the very pigments they were coloured with.

"They were killed on 9/11 when their plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre," Reid said, breathing harshly out of his nose. Lilah glanced up, eyes wide with shock. She breathed out in a low whistle, shaking her head and looking at the pictures again. He could remember it exactly, being in homeroom when his teacher turned on the television at 8:50a.m., watching the footage captured of the plane crashing into the World Trade Centre. How Caleb had been the one to work out that it had been his _parents'_ flight. The girls started crying. The teacher had to be revived. Reid sat in his desk staring at the television. Tyler had his arms around him. Later that day, the Provost coming to tell him his parents were dead. Tyler's parents were his new guardians. They wanted him to board with Tyler, his best-friend since the womb.

"You've got your mummy's sweet face," she said softly. _I wouldn't know what to say either_, he thought, resting his cheek against his knee, staring glumly at the photographs. He'd prefer to think of himself like his impulsively-sweet mother. He was impulsive, and Lilah said—no, _thought_—he was sweet. His father had been the one who wanted her to go with him to L.A. It was his fault they were both dead.

"Do you miss them?" Lilah asked.

"Every day," Reid shrugged. "I wonder how different my life might've turned out. How different _I'd_ have turned out."

"I like you the way you are," Lilah said, as if to herself, but he heard her, and smiled. _Okay, so I'm not a total fuck-up to everyone_, he thought. It was okay if he _was_, but as long as he had one person's good-graces, he could brave the rest of the world. That's why he was so close with Tyler. He twitched a smile across his lips.

"Well, I just wanted you to know, you're not alone, so if you want to talk," he blushed slightly as Lilah smiled at him, "I'm here." Tyler had said that; 'If you want to talk, I'm here.' He would always be there for him. He always chose Reid over Caleb in a conflict. Similarly, Pogue always backed Caleb. Lilah smiled sadly and pecked his cheek, hugging his neck. He felt heat flush his face and he smiled into Lilah's shoulder as she sighed almost imperceptibly against him.

"What're you listening to?"

"Eva Cassidy," Lilah sighed wistfully. "'I Know You By Heart'."

"'Over the Rainbow' was my mom's favourite," Reid said, smiling.

* * *

**A.N.**: Please review!

* * *


	8. Pasta

**A.N.**: Sweet! Many reviews today! I am very, very happy! Thank you all for your compliments! This chapter is very much lighter than the last—which I wrote at about midnight and was probably listening to something depressing on my iTunes!

* * *

"Towel-up, dude!" Tyler cringed, tossing a white towel towards Reid as he pranced around the locker-room in the buff, showing off. Reid smirked, grabbed the towel, and wrapped it around his waist as several guys wolf-whistled. _That's new_, he quirked an eyebrow, but a second later he realised they weren't making noise for him: Lilah strode through the many guys dressing in front of their lockers. She wasn't even blushing. She was wearing her street-clothes; she finished after homeroom on Thursdays, same as him, but she had ditched swim-practice, and Reid knew the reason why, so he wasn't anxious about her having been abducted or anything.

She was in her skirt mood today. She always wore a skirt when she wanted to look nice when she felt like shit; brown corduroy mini, translucent chocolate stockings (_always_ stockings or hold-ups, never pantyhose), leg-warmers and mid-calf brown-leather boots, a striped sweater and a long scarf, her makeup warm and golden, autumn tones, a mulled-wine lipstick, her hair styled prettily with wispy curls framing her face and the nape of her neck, an intricate bun of braids and coils gathered at the back of her head with decorative clips. All of the guys stared at her bravado as she walked through the aisle and turned, smiling softly at him as she went, to the coach's office.

Reid exhaled slowly, eyebrows raised, and glanced at Tyler. He mimicked his expression and they both ran to the end of the lockers, where Caleb and Pogue were changing, to watch the internal window into the coach's office.

"Where's she been the last few days?" Tyler asked in a low voice, frowning concernedly.

"Her mom died seventeen years ago yesterday," Reid said quietly, watching Lilah apologise—he could hear her thoughts because she was letting him—to Coach for her behaviour on Monday afternoon, and for not being there for practice on Tuesday—or Wednesday or today, and why. Caleb watched them intently; he had yet to find another unfortunate student of Spenser who had lost one of their parents to death and not divorce.

"Oh," Tyler said softly, with a quick glance at the office before returning to his locker and dressing. He kept glancing at Reid carefully.

"So is that why you were listening to voicemail?" he asked quietly, so the others couldn't hear him. Reid chucked his combination-lock onto the top shelf of his locker and nodded. Tyler didn't say anything more on the subject, and for that Reid was glad. Lilah exited the office after only a few minutes, and she smiled again and ran her hand across his stomach as she passed him to the door.

"She still hasn't paid up, huh," Pogue smirked. Reid rolled his eyes, disgruntled, and slung his towel to the bench as he tugged his boxers on. Lilah was sitting outside on one of the stone benches, knees and toes together, fiddling with something in her lap as the gentle breeze played with the tassels of her scarf and her little curls around her temples. Reid grinned and walked over, squatting down in front of her, taking her knees for stability.

"Hi," he grinned.

"I have Swedish Fish for you," Lilah smiled bashfully, the dimples winking in the corners of her tinted lips, handing him a little packet of candies to him.

"What are these for?" he asked, smiling, opening the little bag and offering her some Fish.

"I wanted to say thank you, for yesterday," Lilah said softly, playing with the Fish in her lap. Reid smiled. He loved it when she was bashful. Assertive was fun, too, and flirty made him really hot, but he could see the real Lilah when she was shy, bashful, vulnerable, like yesterday in her car. He reached up and brushed a wayward curl behind her ear, earning a little smile, and smiled back at her.

"It's okay," he smiled. He had gotten into shit for ditching his lessons yesterday afternoon, but he didn't care, if he had perhaps prevented Lilah from getting into an accident she wouldn't Use to save herself from. It was only a History quiz, which he'd aced easily, and which he knew Lilah had as well. She'd had to stay in during lunch-hour to make up her quiz.

"We're heading over to Nicky's," he said, gesturing over his shoulder towards the guys, who were walking already up the steps to the dorms. Caleb was walking over to his Mustang. "Are you gonna come?" He wished he hadn't asked in those specific words. She licked her tinted lips and tweaked the corner in a smile, dimple winking.

_Do it_, Reid told himself, glancing from her sparkling eyes to her lips. _Do it now. Kiss her_. So he did. He craned his neck and pressed his lips against hers. So soft, and they tasted so good, like a cinnamon-roll, as he laced his tongue across her bottom-lip. She gave him access with a soft, breathless moan, he felt her cool hands against his skin, burning from the locker-rooms, against his cheek and against his throat, as he rubbed his tongue against hers, tingles going down his spine to his groin as the tongue-piercing tickled him. He had to grab her thighs to keep from falling backwards as she leaned forwards, and she giggled softly as he tipped over backwards.

"Very graceful," she chuckled playfully. He gripped her knee where he knew she was extremely ticklish, making her thrash around on the bench, shrieking with laughter, and stood up, leaning over her, to cup her head and kiss her again. She giggled softly and sighed as she let him explore her mouth again. _Definitely cinnamon-rolls_, he thought.

"Did you have Cinnabon?" he asked, cocking his head to one side. She flushed and nodded. "I _love_ Cinnabon." He pouted and she smiled, standing up and adjusting the strap of her bag. He smiled at her; she was only a few inches shorter, perfect height so he could wrap his arm around her waist if he wanted. But he didn't. He took her hand, lacing his fingers through hers, and tugged her gently across the lawn. She laughed and followed him, catching up with her long stride, and she looped his arm around her shoulders, clapping a hand low on his hips.

They didn't even get all the way to his dorm before they were locked at the lips again, backing up against the panelling. He couldn't get enough of the taste of her lips, how warm she was under the thin sweater, how her hand kept straying to the very top of his pants, trailing a finger along the tender skin below his belly-button. He unlocked his dorm and they stumbled inside, laughing breathlessly. He closed the door and pressed her against it, arms wrapped around her, laughing into her kiss.

"I've wanted to do this since I first saw you," Lilah gasped, kissing him again with eyes closed and moaning softly as he held her close, teasing her tongue.

"Mm…me too," he sighed, kissing her lingeringly. Something nagged at his brain—Tyler, the guys, Nicky's.

"We're gonna—we're gonna be late," he gasped, "—the guys are—Tyler will be—" _coming_, Reid thought, moaning softly as he slid his tongue against hers, that damn piercing sending tingles down to his penis again and made him hiss softly and suppress a moan of longing. _No wonder she gets compliments on it. Imagine if she sucked... Don't_, he thought, scolding himself. _Don't get too ahead of yourself. She's not like the others_. He kept his hands on her hips as they kissed, alternately sighing softly and moaning breathlessly, until her hands found his and guided them up her body. Her waist was tiny, her skin hot and smooth, her breasts large and burning in his hands, more than a handful, less than a waste, probably a D-cup. She rarely wore a bra after lunchtime; she always whipped it off through her sleeve during homeroom. It was the highlight of the Sons' day. They were interrupted by someone trying to open the door, hitting Lilah in the ass.

"Ow! Tyler!" she complained, and Reid quickly retrieved his hands and backed away, letting her open the door when she had adjusted her top._ Down boy_.

"Hey guys," Tyler greeted them with a grin, glancing between them. "What's up?" Lilah choked on a tiny laugh and smirked.

"I'm going to go and get ready," she smiled sanguinely, giving him a coquettish look over her shoulder. "Why don't _you_ go and take a cold-shower and change." The door snapped shut behind her and Tyler turned immediately to Reid, eyebrows raised in demand.

"Are you gonna do your little happy dance?" Tyler asked, and Reid _whee_-ed and pranced around the room, collapsing on his bed with a laugh. Tyler laughed as he picked out new clothes and started changing out of his uniform, rolling his eyes at Reid's light-hearted behaviour.

She met him down in the foyer. She wore all black, classy; low-cut V-neck long-sleeved top, a neat black leather skirt, opaque black silk stockings, and a pair of high black suede heels, her hair wet but coiled into the same look as before, a pair of blood-red rubies dangling from her lowest piercings. She smiled languidly as she strode over and linked her arms around his neck, gently pressing her lips to his, keeping her eyes open, sighing contentedly.

"Hey, I haven't eaten, okay," Tyler warned.

* * *

Nicky's was already packed on a Thursday evening, just after seven o'clock, and when they walked into the bar and found Pogue and the others sitting at a table and eating chilli-cheese nachos, Pogue gaped.

"You two _totally_ hooked up," he said. Reid and Lilah both stopped short, arms draped around each other, staring at Pogue as the others glanced at them. Sarah blushed; Tyler smirked. Caleb swiped Pogue round the back of the head. Reid smirked and threw himself down in a chair; there were no more, so Lilah sat in his lap, reaching over to steal Pogue's drink and took a great gulp of soda before handing it back.

"Hey, Caleb, will you give me a quarter?" Sarah asked, holding her hand out. "I'm gonna put a new song on." Caleb handed over the coin but followed her to the jukebox, complaining:

"You're not gonna put G-4 on, are you?"

"What's wrong with G-4?"

"You _always_ play G-4," Caleb said. She put on 'I Love Rock and Roll' and forced Caleb to dance with her; Reid knew he enjoyed it. He watched Lilah eat a tray of chilli-cheese fries and finish a coke.

"Are you always hungry when you're horny?" he whispered in her ear. She shivered and hummed softly, wiggling her hips in his lap, letting him hold her breasts casually in view of everyone. He groaned and smacked what was revealed of her ass as she shifted to reach for the basket of Tyler's cold nachos. "Tease," he pouted, and heard her chuckle. He _loved _English chicks. They were so…_relaxed_. He could joke with Lilah about sex as he would with Tyler, and she was often dirtier. American girls were so uptight about sex and nudity—they had a problem with Halle Berry's nipples in _Die Another Day_, for god's sake! Pogue kept smirking as he drank his way through sodas and danced with Sarah—she would never let anyone sit alone and grumpy. He sat hugging Lilah's waist, resting his head against her back, eyes closed contentedly.

"I can make better stuff than this," Lilah sighed, pushing away the tray of fries with a wrinkle of her delicate nose. She glanced over her shoulder, slinging an arm around his neck so her chest pressed up against his. "You want me to cook you something?" Her eyes were glittering, and those dimples at the corners of her mouth were winking again.

"Yeah, sure," he laughed, and she giggled as she tugged him out of Nicky's, barely giving him enough time to grab his jacket. Stopping at Safeway, Lilah jumped back into the car and they drove back to the dorms, to the deserted kitchen that was as meticulously clean as the first day they'd all moved into the dorms.

"Alright, grate half of this block of cheese," Lilah said, slapping his arm and handing him the cheese grater. Reid pouted, but did as he was told—until he almost grated his fingernail off and cussed with language that could make a sailor blush. Lilah sighed and took his hand, running it under the cold water, and stuck the tip of his finger into her mouth. Reid raise his eyebrows and she gently kissed the tip of his finger, nudging his nose affectionately. Reid grinned and gave her a sweet kiss before they went back to cooking: he grated the rest of the cheese and she added it to a steaming white sauce made with flour, milk, a teaspoon of English mustard, butter, and salt and pepper while the pasta boiled on the stove.

"I've been wondering why these dorms have kitchens if nobody uses them," Lilah said thoughtfully, straining the pasta in a colander and tipping the steaming twists into the white sauce.

"Nobody here knows how to take care of themselves," Reid chuckled, stealing a spoonful of pasta. He sighed, _Yum_, chewing on the cheesy pasta. She gently flicked the tip of his nose with her finger.

"Bad boy. It's not finished yet," she said. He pouted in that adorable way he knew could get him anything, out of any trouble. Providing it was a woman who was accusing her of anything. Lilah poured the pasta and sauce into a big glass dish and slid it into the oven, setting the timer for ten minutes, and turned to the sink of hot water.

"You know, when my mom was alive, the cook never did the cleaning," Reid said, picking up a dishtowel. Lilah hummed softly as he took the utensils from her. When his mom had been alive, she used to cook a hot meal every day. She was the only woman in the coven who didn't come from Old Money families, and before she met Reid's father, she had earned her own living illustrating children's books. It was their tradition for Reid to wash the dishes—even though they had a dishwasher and he was six—and his mom would sing Eva Cassidy songs as she dried them.

"What was your favourite thing she used to cook you?" Lilah asked.

"Thanksgiving dinner," Reid sighed. "After thanksgiving, we'd keep the turkey, and she'd make cold turkey wraps with stuffing and cranberry sauce."

"We have turkey at Christmas," Lilah said. "That's tradition for English families. And a great alcohol-soaked Christmas pudding. And Christmas cake. And mince-pies…" she pouted softly. When she got like this, glazed-eyed and pouting, he knew she was thinking about home, about her dad, her old friends he heard her talking to on her cellphone when he went to her dorm at lunch. So he decided to remind her what she had here. He nudged her cheek with his nose and when she turned her head inquisitively he brushed his lips against hers. She sighed softly and the water sloshed as she reached her hand up. He jumped as she slipped her wet fingers through his hair. Smiling, she went back to the dishes.

"Wash my car for me when you're done," someone said, laughing unkindly. Reid glanced over his shoulder and took defensive stance, glowering at Aaron as he unfolded a packet of popcorn and shoved it into the microwave.

"Excuse me?" Lilah said indignantly.

"Not you, Lilah," Aaron smirked gently, "I'm talking to the punk. Wear your favourite dress too, Garwin, 'cause when you're done I'm tossin' you out on the street where you belong." Reid started forward, but Lilah's slick wet hands fisted his t-shirt, shooting him a warning look. He took a deep breath and suppressed his anger as Aaron slammed the door of the microwave, getting aggravated with it. Reid turned his back and focused; his eyes flashed and the microwave short-circuited.

"Aaron," Lilah said pleasantly, turning away from the dishes. "Aaron, what was the name of that Italian restaurant you wanted to take me to, _Mac_—something?"

"The one by Regal?" Aaron asked, his voice rising hopefully.

"Yes, what was it?" Lilah asked, a very pretty smile lacing her lips. Reid sloshed the water around in the sink, clenching his jaw. _How come Aaron gets the girl to go on a date_? he asked himself aggressively.

"_Romano's Macaroni Grill_," Aaron breathed.

"Yes, that was it," Lilah beamed. She turned to Reid, placing her hand on his chest. "Well _you _can take me there. Next Friday night at eight o'clock. Is that okay?" Reid grinned at her, completely ignoring Aaron as he slammed the microwave door shut and stalked out of the kitchen. She smiled at him, taking the dishcloth; he wiped his hands and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. _She knows how to play_, he thought, smiling. She finished the last dish and dried her hands off.

"Hey," he said softly, bending his head to capture Lilah's lips in a searing kiss. She melted into him immediately, pressing her body against him as she slipped her arms around his neck, a hand cradling his cheek, and they tumbled into the corner of the cabinets, kissing fiercely. Lilah laughed breathlessly as he hoisted her up to his hips, hugging her around the middle, feeling her hands creep around his waist.

"That's _disgusting_," a snooty voice said distastefully, and Reid let his head fall on Lilah's shoulder.

"Go _away_, Kira," he sighed heavily.

"Aaron sent me to get popcorn," Kira said lightly. Lilah made a tiny noise in her throat that sounded condescending, and Reid smirked up at her.

"Hey, did you know that Aaron asked me out, to _Macaroni Grill_" Lilah asked lightly, resting her chin on his shoulder as she looked over at Kira. He couldn't see Kira's face, but he was sure it fell animatedly.

"Why would he do that?" Kira asked weakly.

"Are you _blind_?" Reid gaped, gesturing frantically at Lilah—well, her breasts, and her face. Kira was watching Lilah with something like scepticism, or _fear_, in her eyes. Kira's heels clicked away softly and Reid smirked.

"Two in one night; you are _sizz-a-ling_," he said, butting hips with her as he released her from the countertop. Lilah laughed and brought the browned dish of macaroni-cheese out of the oven, letting it sit for a few minutes while they kissed, finally doling out the dinner with a tin of baked beans she'd cooked on the stove. Everything tasted so _good_ to Reid, as if he'd never had macaroni-and-cheese or baked-beans before. No, it was just how Lilah made them. He didn't need to take her on a date, he could do her right here just for her cooking.

* * *

**A.N.**: Please review. I'll keep asking until the number of reviews equals the number of hits to the story! :) Or surpasses it!


	9. Witch

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Covenant. Duh.

**Author's Note**: Thank you all for the reviews. I'm sending you good vibes! Hope you like this one:)

* * *

"I can't believe we've been here three weeks already," Reid said softly, stroking his thumb against Lilah's spine as she leaned over _Hamlet_. She was reading it for fun while waiting for Reid to finish his latest French assignment. She'd already finished hers, and refused to go out until he'd completed his _without_ copying anything from hers or Tyler's.

"I know. I would've thought I'd have ditched you by now," Lilah said offhandedly, turning her page and keeping his eyes focused on Claudius' speech. Reid gripped her thigh, making her writhe and gasp breathlessly with laughter. Lilah grinned, turned on, as he nudged her knees apart and propped himself up over her.

"What was that?" he asked, grinning devilishly down at her with those puckered, sculpted lips, raising an eyebrow at her. She smirked and giggled softly, curling a hand over his forearm as he gently pushed his hips against hers tauntingly as he leaned over and kissed that spot right under her ear where the skin was most tender, which he figured out early on made her really horny. He tickled her mercilessly, blowing raspberries on her neck that made her shriek and curl up into him.

"Well, well, well." Tyler's voice interrupted their pseudo-innocent foreplay. "What _have _we here?" Lilah, head hanging upside down over the edge of the bed, laughed drunkenly and waved as she saw her friend looking reprovingly at them, trying to pull herself up. Reid gave her a hand and she smiled over her shoulder at Tyler.

"Reid's going to finish his homework first," Lilah said sternly, and Reid muttered; '_slave-driver_' under his breath. Lilah smacked him and he pouted.

"Oh, well, stop by if you catch up on the semester's workload," Tyler smirked. Reid glared and ground his jaw. "See ya later." Lilah called out a goodbye after him as Tyler closed the door after grabbing his wallet and a jacket and settled back on Reid's bed. She loved lying on his bed; it smelled just like him, that intoxicating warmth and spiciness of _boy_.

"Can I ask you a question?" Reid asked.

"You already did," Lilah sighed, picking up her book and finding her page, her diamond wristwatch catching the light as it slipped down her slender wrist, resting her cheek against her palm.

"Why haven't you told the guys yet?" he asked. She knew it had been bugging him for a while. Pretty much since he'd taken the heat for someone Using from Caleb. She hadn't been Using too noticeably lately, because she knew Caleb always suspected him. But she knew he wanted to Use; the urge was always too strong, and he wanted her to Use so she could lift the curse on his family. Her father's books had arrived by FedEx last week and Reid had been up until three o'clock every morning reading. The guys thought he was going insane; every time they saw him reading outside of class, the teachers congratulated Lilah for being such a good influence on him. Lilah glanced at him nervously.

"About…?" _Well, they already know about us_, she thought giddily.

"About you being a witch," he said, frowning. She squirmed on the bed and chewed her bottom lip. She didn't know why she didn't tell the guys. There were references to her being a witch on her Facebook account, where she frequently—every hour, almost—updated for her friends back home, in the coven. Mostly she liked that Reid had her all to himself in that. The guys were always vying for her attention whenever they went out. With magic, she was all Reid's.

"I don't know if they trust me yet," she said softly, and Reid blurted a laugh.

"If Tyler doesn't trust you, then he hates me!" he smiled. Pogue's parents already knew—she'd told him that—that she was in line to be the leader of the greatest—and only—coven in Britain. She'd watched him memorise the family-trees of the coven back to the 1000s, since before William the Conqueror had invaded Britain. And Caleb—well, Reid had suggested that if she explained everything to him after he'd gotten laid, when he was less likely to have energy to get really angry, she'd be fine.

"We all love you, Lilah," Reid said honestly, and he squirmed awkwardly as her intense eyes flickered over him. He'd said that word; _love_. "I mean, you know we wouldn't do anything to hurt you." She scoffed softly.

"My power is greater than all of yours combined," she said, reading Hamlet's soliloquy, kicking her legs above her childishly.

"And yet you're so modest," Reid teased, resting the weight of his torso over her waist, playing with her long hair, which today was loose and tousled. "No, seriously, I know I've told you about Chase Collins, but he _was _a threat, I mean he was trying to kill Caleb. You're not trying to kill us."

"Well, not yet, but you haven't pissed me off when I'm PMS-ing," Lilah said, and Reid stilled above her.

"You will tell me when that is, just so I can be prepared?" he asked, leaning closer to her, so she could feel the heat radiating from him. He was always really hot after swim-practice and showers. In more ways than one.

"Trust me, honey, you'll know: I'll be unbearable for four days," she sighed heavily. She decided she'd lull him into that mentality, even though she was on the pill, just so she could be a total bitch when it came for 'her time of the month'. She and Talli—her best-friend since birth, Tallulah Lintott-Sheldon—had started doing it years ago, when they'd both gone on the pill. Pretend you weren't, and you could give everyone hell and skive off lessons because of period-cramps and terrible bloating.

"Good to know," Reid said softly, nibbling tauntingly on her neck. "Come on, will you, I mean—tell them?" She glanced over her shoulder, studied him with her versatile eyebrows, very Roger More-esque in the way she could quip one and not the other—something Caleb couldn't do and it pissed him off greatly, and sighed.

"Alright, I'll tell them soon," she said dejectedly. Just how 'soon' and _how_ she didn't know. "But you're softening them up first. I don't want Caleb trying to test my powers. I might kill him."

"He has his father's share of the Power too, you know," Reid warned. Lilah gave another soft scoff of impatience. Reid finished his French sentences and vocabulary and Lilah ran a stick of lipstick over her lips; poisonous red, with her dark eye makeup and her tousled hair, dressed in her new blue flannel dress over a heathery-grey thermal top, thick warm black cotton tights, and her slouchy suede wedge boots. Reid was giving her his Look again, the one that told him he was incredibly attracted and dangerously turned-on, and grabbed her in a close hug, capturing her lips in a searing kiss as he rolled her over onto her back, sighing softly as she wrapped her hands around his waist, completely melting into him.

In her tights and her flimsy dress, she could feel everything, and it made her hot as he pressed his thick erection against her through his jeans. If she was a tease, he was something much, _much_ worse. _Kind of like a girl who offered sex as the wager for a bet and didn't let him pay his debts_, Lilah thought. She moaned softly as she wrapped her limbs around Reid and cradled his face in her hands. If he had started undressing her right now, she wouldn't have stopped him. She didn't know _how_ he could control himself when he got so hot—she could read his thoughts, she knew what he wanted—but they had yet to have sex.

"Reid," she breathed, nudging his nose affectionately. Sweet nose, like a button. Glittering eyes like the Caribbean Sea. He grinned down at her breathlessly, gently rubbing his hips against her again. "I've worked it out." She didn't want her Reid to wither and die prematurely, like Caleb's dad had. _Her _Reid. She liked the sound of that. His eyes flickered over her face curiously. "The counter-curse, the Latin translation, I've finished it." Reid's eyes widened excitedly.

"You've figured out how to do it?" he breathed. Lilah grinned, craning her neck to capture his lips. He moaned and traced her throat with his fingertips, making her shiver.

"You want to do it now?" he asked, eyes lighting up. Lilah grinned, sitting up and making him roll off her, making him groan slightly as she teasingly massaged his crotch. "We'd better do _something_ or I'm gonna ravage you." Lilah giggled as he grabbed her waist and tugged her onto him, hugging her waist from behind.

"Alright, we'll go now," she promised. "I need to get some things first though."

* * *

Caleb thought the little shop on Second Street was all nonsense; voodoo, modern conceptions of 'witchcraft' with potion ingredients and spellbooks. But some of the stuff was actually useful; candles, their different representations with scent and colour and power. She could tell Reid was excited; his fingers were trembling with adrenaline, like they did after swim-practice or a particularly rigorous make-out session. He drove them 'downtown' and she hopped back into the Stingray with a brown paper bag filled with little candles. _The Tryals of the Banished: Danvers, Garwin, Simms, Parry and Putnam_ was stashed in her leather satchel. It was the documentation of the coven of the legal trials held within the coven to decide the fate of the five teenaged men who were abusing the Power, how they were condemned and cursed, in intricate detail by narrow, spidery script, the pages yellowed and crackling, how they were sent off to the New World as punishment, banished from the coven.

"We need a sacred place—sacred to your coven," she said, clipping her seatbelt in. "Do you know where it was originally sealed?"

"The Danvers' first colony house," Reid suggested. Lilah frowned, thinking hard. It didn't make sense to use land sacred to the first colonists—the first sinners against the coven.

"What about sacred to _your_ coven, you, Tyler, Pogue and Caleb?" Lilah asked. Reid frowned, hand on his keys.

"Caleb and Pogue both had their Ascension at Putnam Barn, but it's burned down," he said.

"Head for that," Lilah smiled. "It doesn't matter about the building, just as long as we can still access the site." Reid smiled and drove them out of Ipswich, to the land outside the city limits that belonged to the Sons, the land that had made up the original colony of Ipswich. In the dusk, the leaves that were just turning were gilded with dying sunlight, the sky painted blood-red. There was no wind; the leaves were completely still, the clouds did not move noticeably on the horizon, the edges gilt, and the sky promised a good day tomorrow.

She had seen pictures of what Putnam Barn had looked like—up until last year when it was destroyed in a fire. Reid had told her the fire was created by Caleb's duel with Chase Collins—or Chase Goodwin-Pope. The timbre was still blackened, nothing removed from the wreckage on the historical site.

_Historical, pah! Notre Dam was begun in 1163! They think _this_ is a historical site! _The difference between historical values of English and Americans was marked by what Americans believed to be the beginning of _their_ world, the landing of the _Mayflower_.

"Do you know whereabouts they Ascended?" she asked, walking with her clinking bag of candles in her hand through the tall grasses to the blackened waste.

"Yeah, it was just over here," Reid said, pointing and guiding her to what was left of a structural column for what was probably the upstairs. "We all decided, after Caleb's Ascension, that we'd come out here too, just 'cause no one else will, so they won't be able to see." Lilah was nervous about all this talk of Ascending. Her Ascension was pending; two months, on November the second at 15:46 p.m. She'd read that it could be anything from a gentle tingling to a splitting migraine only a hundred times worse. Kind of like getting a tattoo. It all depended on the person and how strong they were, Power-wise.

Lilah shook her head of these thoughts and found somewhere to prop her book open.

"We have to make a pentagram with these mosaic tiles," Lilah said, undoing a drawstring bag filled with flattened semi-precious stones imbued with potent power she'd bought from the shop with the candles. Reid marked the five-point star with his heel, dragging it across the charred earth, and Lilah placed the tiles in strategic places, at the joints, closing the pentagram. The light was dying already, here, surrounded by the woods with no streetlights or anything.

"What's next?" Reid asked lightly, but Lilah smiled: she could tell he was nervous. She upturned the brown paper bag and started placing the candles in a circle around the five-point star, completing the pentagram. Mostly they were just for light, but they also served a purpose in the spell too. One this powerful, they needed signs to make sure they were doing things correctly.

"Okay, before I light the candles, walk over the pentagram—just walk over to me," Lilah encouraged, as Reid looked sceptical. He walked over, and she watched; the pentagram, or the air around it, the earth below it, shimmered with visible Power. But only inside the pentagram. It was working so far. It was time to tell Reid what needed to happen.

"Okay, I've translated the procedure and the actual _counter-curse_," Lilah said, unfolding a piece of scratch-paper from her bag.

"Where'd you learn Latin, anyway?" Reid asked, trying to take the paper. She kept hold of it, giving him a look.

"Everyone in the coven can read it," Lilah shrugged. "It's essential if we want to study the old texts. But we learn it within the coven, not at school or anything."

"Just for fun," Reid smirked mockingly. Lilah gave him another warning look. He glanced up at her coyly, bashful.

"The ritual requires our blood. If it had been our ancestors, it would have needed the blood of the curser and the blood of the cursed," she sighed, shivering slightly. "Since my direct blood ancestors cursed yours, it should work." _Hopefully the blood isn't watered down too much_, she thought sceptically.

"So, we prick our fingers or something, and you read that?" Reid said, pointing to the paper.

"Yeah, basically," Lilah said dryly, glancing at the paper glumly. "To be honest, I thought it'd be more difficult. But I suppose that's counting your chickens before they're hatched." Reid nodded, biting his thumbnail.

"So what next?" he asked softly.

"Get inside the pentagram," Lilah directed, and took a booklet of matches from her pocket. Stepping inside the pentagram with Reid and the counter-curse, she struck a match and bent to light the first candle. She beamed as each candle lit with the first. She straightened up, feeling Reid's eyes on her ass, and gave him a look. He looked so _pretty_ with the golden lights of his hair picked out by the still flames, the curve of his cheekbones defined, his eyes glittering. She had to try very hard to resist the sculpted curves of his lips. She swallowed and glanced at her writing. She'd written the directions down, and pulled the switchblade out of her pocket. A tremor went through Reid as she flicked the blade out; it gleamed in the firelight.

"Hold this a second," she whispered, offering him the paper. He took it and watched her as she held the knife in her right hand, gripping the blade with her left, looking away from her hand and clenching her eyes shut as the metal seared her palm. This was different to getting a tattoo, much different.

"Okay, now you have to cut your palm," Lilah said, nodding to his right hand. He took the blade, glanced at her, and cut his skin. _We could get hepatitis from this_, she thought. No, if the counter-curse worked properly, the cuts on their palms wouldn't matter. She stabbed the centre of the pentagram with the blade and left it there, straightening up to offer her hand, palm up, to Reid. He glanced at it and gently took her hand, pressing their palms together. _This is so gross_, she thought, nauseated. She took the paper, and—knowing English wouldn't work—she read off the counter-curse in Latin.

Nothing happened.

And then, all at once, the candles extinguished themselves. But there was no breeze. Lilah gripped Reid's hand as a crackle of thunder resounded overhead, a flash of lightening accompanying it, illuminating the sky with many forks of brilliance.

"Is this normal?" Reid asked, glancing up warily. "End-of-the-world, apocalyptic-type weather?" A fork of lightening split through the sky and Lilah gasped and was thrown back as the lightening—but it _wasn't _lightening, the type she saw smiting down trees during storms—struck their joined hands. Reid yelled, face drawn in anguish, as the streak of light connected with his forehead, spreading through his entire body. _It's like he's Ascending already_, Lilah gasped. But all too soon to study properly, it was over. Reid gasped and slumped to his knees, resting his forehead on the ground. Lilah ran to him and tugged his torso up, steadying him.

"Ow!" he moaned piteously, and Lilah had to laugh at his lameness.

"You okay?" she asked, stroking his cheek affectionately. She glanced at her left hand. "Look at your hand."

"There's nothin' to see," Reid said dully, glancing at his right palm. Lilah stared at hers. Completely smooth, as if she'd never even cut it, no scarring tissue, nothing.

"It worked," she gasped softly, and turned her wide eyes on Reid as she beamed. Her first _real_ bit of magic, and it had _worked_. She could Use so much power before she had even Ascended. That was proof enough she was stronger than any of the others in the coven—definitely of this little one.

"How can you tell?" Reid asked sceptically, frowning at his palm.

"Do something. Use," Lilah said, shrugging. "Make the car come to us." Reid quirked an eyebrow above his hat—_god, he's always wearing that numpty hat!_—and glanced at his Stingray. His eyes flashed and went pitch-black. It was actually quite freaky in the pitch blackness of the night to see his eyes like that. The engine of the Stingray started up and rumbled as the headlights flooded the burned barn-site with light, wheels turning decisively as Reid grinned, directing the car over to them, opening the doors with a soft _click_ of the doors.

"Do you feel anything?" Lilah asked. She'd read about the Ipswich witches Using, how they felt an irritation like an addiction every time they Used. Reid glanced at her, and he stared.

"No, I don't," he said wondrously. Lilah grabbed his face and planted a kiss on his lips.

"It _worked_!" she grinned delightedly. "You can Use now like I do. All the time and you won't age prematurely. Your body can handle the Power now. The curse has been lifted completely." Reid grinned and grabbed her as he stood up, plastering a blistering kiss on her lips, so hot and heavy that Lilah panted as their bodies writhed against each other. Again, they reached that point of equilibrium and had to stop, panting for breath. Lilah was so exhilarated her body was tingling, trembling from the adrenaline rush.

"Come on, we should probably get back to the dorms," Reid smiled softly, his eyes glowing affectionately. "I'll let you drive." Lilah beamed, dancing around to the driver's seat after she'd cleared up evidence of their spellwork. Lilah settled in Reid's seat, turned the key in the ignition, turned up the blaring music—'_Renegade_', their favourite, pretty much their anthem—and they raced through old Ipswich back to Spenser, bellowing along to the music, careening around tight turns that would knock Pogue off his bike, zipping neatly into a parking space in the car-park behind the boarding-house. Breathless and laughing, they strode back into the dorms, arms wrapped around each other, grinning.

* * *

**A.N.**: Tada! Okay, I'm not pagan, or whatever it is they're supposed to be in the film, so I just made all that up with a little bit of reference to _The Craft_. Anywho, please review!


	10. Ride

**A.N.**: Thanks for the reviews: By popular request—another chapter! Thanks, and keep the reviews coming, uh, please!

* * *

Reid couldn't believe how well their date went on Friday night. He met Lilah at her door—hell, they were boarders, and he wasn't normally this chivalrous, but some things he knew how to do, like meeting the girl at the door even if he'd never actually done it formally before—and instantly regretted her having a roommate. She looked stunning, a real femme fatale, dark and alluring, with her hair tousled, her eye makeup dark, her lips coated with poisonous red, dressed in black cut-off leggings, a black chiffon top with billowy sleeves and a black bra easily—purposely—visible underneath, and black high-heeled T-bar Mary-Jane's that gave her an innocent, childish part to her otherwise utterly seductive outfit.

He drove them over to the Regal plaza and—he was so proud of himself—told the hostess he had booked a table for two. He was on a _date_! Lilah looked gorgeous, her shoulders framed with black leather as she held his hand casually, walking with him to their table. The hostess handed them two menus and took their drinks order, placing a loaf of steaming bread and a dish of oil and vinegar on the table for them. Their little tea-light candle guttered and died. Lilah smiled, leaned over slightly, blew on the wick, and the fire sprang back into life.

"You know, you didn't have to bring me here if you didn't want to," Lilah said casually, breaking a chunk of bread off and chewing on it nervously. Her neat fingernails were painted in what his mother used to call a 'French manicure', with subtle white tips rounded gracefully, and her mother's engagement ring glittered on her right hand. It looked so beautiful on her elegant fingers, the brilliant diamond flashing in the dim lighting of the busy restaurant. Nervously, he took her hand over the table, stroking his thumb over her fingers. She smiled warmly.

"I wanted to take you out," Reid said honestly. He'd been nervous about going on a date with Lilah all week. He'd almost drowned during swim-practice, thinking about her instead of his breathing pattern as he did freestyle against Caleb. "We haven't been out alone since Putnam Barn." He grinned over at Lilah. She smiled bashfully; he knew she was shy about her Powers. He'd Used several times since that night, sometimes right in front of Caleb. Their coven leader hadn't even noticed, and Reid no longer felt that hit like a drug that always left him yearning for another, stronger rush. He bet he could win a fight against Caleb now. If only Lilah had turned up last year, he might have been able to help when Caleb's life was threatened and Pogue was in the hospital after he was in a 'motorcycle accident'.

"So, what do you want to eat?" Lilah asked, unfolding her menu. Her eyes glowed as she looked at the desserts; he knew she had an über-sweet-tooth. She beat him in her sugar-consumption levels. "Oh! Look at the 'Smothered Chocolate Cake'. Man, that looks orgasmic." Reid laughed. Some of the things she said came out so naturally from her mouth, even things with sexual innuendos. Well, those were particularly appealing because _she_ was saying them in that mellifluous accent.

"I don't know. I like the look of the three-course deal," Reid frowned at his menu, debating over Fettuccine Alfredo or Chicken Cannelloni for his entrée. Lilah turned to the same page and hummed softly as she examined the menu. She closed it with a snap.

"Well, I know what I'm having," she smiled. Reid settled on Fettuccine when she announced she was going to have the lasagne; they were going to try each other's entrées and desserts. She was having the chocolate cake, of course, and he liked the sound of the tart Lemon Passion Cake.

Reid was suddenly nervous when his salad arrived. He'd never been nervous before about eating with Lilah. It wasn't really a problem when everyone else was pigging out in the dining-hall and all eyes weren't on him. But Lilah ate daintily, carefully cutting her lettuce, and he relaxed. _You can do this_, he thought, egging himself on. It wasn't so different from trying to show Mrs Simms he was somewhat civilised after years in the boarding-house. He liked that Lilah didn't just stick her head down and eat; she talked. They talked. About his parents, and her friends. He was intrigued by them, about the coven of children who went to the same private boarding school—which had two parts, one for boys, one for girls, thoroughly old-fashioned in its rules that were broken hourly by its students—and how close they were with each other. It was like hearing about his own little coven with the guys. Except bigger.

"She's really crazy and very flirty, and we've been best-friends since we were about—well, conceived," Lilah laughed, taking a sip of her soda. Reid grinned. Her best-friend, whom she called Talli, or 'Totti' (Lilah had to explain what posh-totty was to him so he would understand the nickname); a little eccentric, adventurous, boy-crazed, _totty_.

"She sounds a lot like you," Reid grinned, paying her a compliment. Lilah chuckled, digging into her chocolate cake and offering him the spoon dripping chocolate syrup on the white china. He chuckled softly and leaned forward, letting her feed him. She smiled prettily and licked the back of the spoon of the leftover syrup.

"So you miss her a lot," Reid said, after swallowing his cake with a wash of soda. Chocolate and caffeine. _Bad _combination late at night for him. Lilah quietened and nodded glumly.

"Yes. We've never been apart this long before," she sighed. "I love being _here_, of course," she shot him a beautiful smile. "I love being with you, and the others, but it's kind of like losing a limb. Talli is my gangrene-infected limb." Reid wrinkled his nose amusedly.

"Nice visual," he smirked. They'd finished the desserts, and Reid found it highly annoying—and Lilah found it rude also—that the hostess bustled up to clear their plates and hand them their bill, basically just kicking them out of the restaurant now that they had finished eating. From Lilah's descriptions of her favourite places to eat in Europe, it wasn't like that there. She described restaurants to be relaxed; you had the table from the minute you sat down until the minute you chose to leave.

"Come on, let me pay my half," Lilah protested, snatching the little sleeve out of Reid's hand. They'd been squabbling over it for a few minutes. Reid narrowed his eyes, reached forward, and plucked the bill out of the top of the sleeve. Lilah gaped indignantly.

"I worked hard to earn this money to take you out," he said, tucking the cash into the wallet she surrendered, pouting. She laughed softly. "I did! I had to beat Ryan twice at pool to pay for this dinner." He hadn't really. He just liked making her laugh.

"Perhaps I should have cut out the middle-man and gone out with Ryan instead," Lilah laughed, and Reid gripped her knee under the table, making her eyes fly open and bite her lip to prevent a giggle escaping too loud. After dinner, they walked around the nearby park—Lilah was complaining about being stuffed by the American portion-sizes—and Reid drove them back to the dorms. Not exactly the most romantic place in Ipswich, but, well, he was new to this dating thing. Lilah seemed to like making-out on his bed just fine though, so he wasn't going to complain!

* * *

"We thought you guys were gonna come to see _Stardust_ with us," Tyler said, and Lilah gasped, glancing at Reid. He smirked evilly behind his English textbook. She _really _wanted to see _Stardust_, mostly because Ben Barnes from _The History Boys_ play she'd seen in the West End was in it and so was Henry Cavill from _Tristan and Isolde_. Reid wanted to see it for Sienna Miller and Michelle Pfeiffer, which she would excuse him for.

"We're gonna see the eight o'clock showing," Tyler said hopefully. "We'll be at Nicky's before that, if you finish in time." Tyler left the boy's dorm, closing the door softly behind him. The boys—no, Sarah—had been planning for them all to go out as a group to watch a movie; safe, harmless _Stardust_ was what was settled on, after Lilah told her all about _Halloween_. Trust Reid to leave all of his homework for the last minute.

"Have you finished your work yet?" Lilah whined, glancing over her shoulder. Reid grumbled and slammed himself down against his headboard, picking up his legal-pad and biting his pen as he flicked through the textbook. Lilah sighed and stretched, slinking off the bed. "I'll go and get ready _so we can go out_ and go over to Nicky's."

"Alright Mom," Reid said, scribbling down a paragraph in one thought. Lilah rolled her eyes amusedly and closed the door behind her. Twenty minutes later she had returned, dressed very prettily. She always dressed up after lessons, even if it was only to do homework. And unlike the other Spenser girls, he had seen her wear the same items of clothing _many_ times instead of just once before tossing it into the charity bin. She was wearing a pretty black dress with little puff sleeves and a scooping V-neckline trimmed with black lace, printed with tiny little plum-purple flowers, black opaque silk stockings and plum-silk heels with a tiny strap around the ankle.

"Wow," he grinned, eyeing her up. Lilah smiled and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "Maybe we could stay in tonight?" he suggested cheekily. Lilah chuckled softly.

"You do all that work and you don't want to go out?" she smiled. "All work and no play make a very tense Reid."

"Well, I know what makes me relax _really_ well," Reid grinned, and Lilah rolled her eyes.

"Come on, we'll have fun. You've been complaining about going out all day," Lilah smiled, tugging him off the bed.

* * *

Nicky's was busy, as usual, but not as much as on Friday nights or the weekends, although it was Thursday evening, and Reid liked it the most now, when he could play some pool or foosball without having to wait half an hour, and could talk normally and hear everyone else. He did have a good time, and didn't resent Lilah for making him come out with her, even though he'd have liked to stay at the dorms and read up on the coven some more. _God, you're beginning to behave like Caleb…or Sarah…That's even worse_, he chastised himself.

"Hey, I have to go and put petrol in my car," Lilah said, jingling her keys. He rolled his eyes, choosing not to correct her use of the word 'petrol' rather than gas. She always slipped little things like that into her sentences. He was getting used to hearing the lovely English accent, and he loved it every time he did, and the little words, like 'biscuit' instead of cookie and 'chips' instead of fries, and the way she always said 'please' and 'thank you' even if it was only to Nicky. "I'll meet everyone at Regal. Do you want to come with me or are you gonna go with the guys?" He hadn't spent much time with all of the guys together, alone, since pretty much before Sarah had arrived. They were getting to that point in their lives when they were beginning to diverge.

"I'll go with the guys," he said, smiling. Sarah went with Lilah—they had similar musical tastes, and anyway, they could talk about the boys without them hearing and vice versa. He was always curious as to what actually went on when they weren't around, but Lilah sure as hell wasn't gonna tell him. Comments on Lilah's and Sarah's Facebook accounts were just as ambivalent as their comments when he asked what was up—though they seemed to have their own language and meanings for words _he_ didn't understand. Inside jokes of roommates.

After soda and too many chilli-cheese fries, Reid was beginning to feel it when Tyler took them off-road to the old Ipswich colony for a drive before meeting the girls at the movies, talking and laughing loudly. He sat in the passenger seat, and both he and Tyler were looking back at Caleb as he told them a joke while Tyler held the steering-wheel centred to cross the brick-and-flint single-lane bridge.

"TYLER!" Pogue yelled, and glancing in front, Reid realised too late to help that they were colliding with a glittery dark-red vintage Mini. Tyler hit the brakes but it still didn't change the fact that the engine of the Mini exploded and the entire car dismantled as they bulldozed on over the bridge. Tyler hit the brakes hard, so they screeched to a stop in the field the other side. Reid was pelting across the bridge away from the Hummer as soon as he could get his seatbelt off. The Mini had reassembled a quarter of a mile down the road and black tyre-tracks marked her progress as she skidded to a halt. He threw himself against the driver's door and flung it open, squatting to stare at Lilah. She had her hands clenched on the steering-wheel so tight her knuckles were white, her face was bloodless, she was drenched in sweat and was gasping for breath as tears slid down her face. Sarah sat in the passenger seat, completely shaken, staring at Lilah with wide, frightened eyes.

"Lilah, it's me," Reid said softly, stroking her cheek tenderly, trying to pry her fingers from the wheel.

He heard heavy footfalls and Caleb appeared at Sarah's side.

"I'm okay," Sarah reassured Caleb quickly, relieving him of the stricken expression that pulled his features taut. "I'm fine, it's okay. Lilah… I don't know what happened." Lilah whimpered softly, eyes wide as she stared beseechingly at him. He cradled her cheek and kissed it reassuringly.

"You're okay, baby." Her bottom lip trembled and he enveloped her in his arms. It had shaken him too, but it had hit her harder; the bridge. Where her mother had been hit and killed. After a few seconds she was calm again, wiping her face with her hands, sighing chokingly.

"I suppose I have to tell them, don't I," she mumbled miserably to him.

"Tell us what?" Caleb asked, cradling Sarah as if for dear life. _God he loves that girl_, Reid thought. Lilah sighed, glanced at Reid, who nodded reassuringly, and turned back to the leader of their little four-member coven.

"I'm a witch." It took a few seconds for the statement to kick in with full impact. Of course, Caleb was immediately incredulous and disbelieving. Pogue said; 'Well that explains a lot about why Mom and Dad agreed to take care of you' and Tyler just let his eyebrows rise, as he was prone to when he couldn't think of anything clever enough to say.

"That's impossible, she can't be," Caleb said, staring at Lilah. She shared a secret little smile with Reid, and her eyes flashed and turned black, glittering like stars in a midnight sky, stunning with her ivory skin and her black hair, and she made the Hummer's engine rumble and guided it over to them.

"Oh. Okay," Caleb accepted it as he fell back on his butt on the grass, completely stunned.

"If we can go back to the dorms," Lilah said awkwardly, squirming in her seat, "I could explain properly. Reid already knows everything."

"Told you I wasn't the one Using," Reid smirked deliciously. Caleb's face paled.

"Reid, I'm—I'm sorry," he said honestly, and Reid smirked again.

"Well, if you grovel really well, Lilah might lift the curses on you too," Reid smirked, gloating in the fact that, for once, he knew more about the Power than golden-boy Caleb did. Caleb only knew their history. Not all of history.

"What curses?" Caleb asked warily. Reid exchanged a smirk with Lilah. _This is so cool_, he thought, loving the fact that he could taunt straight-A student Caleb about lack of knowledge.

"You mean _I_ actually know something you don't?" Reid gasped tauntingly. "I think I'll just take a moment to relish this…" He took a deep breath, smiling benignly, closing his eyes.

"Reid!" Caleb snapped, and Reid smirked as he opened his eyes.

"It's not mine to tell," he said. "It's all Lilah."

"I want to see the film first," Lilah said, jingling her collection of key-chains—he'd bought her one, a little silver rose that matched her tattoo. _His _tattoo.

"Can't you tell us now?" Caleb demanded.

"No, no," Reid said eagerly, "it's better in the dark."

"That's what she said," Tyler spoke up quickly, and he giggled until Reid swiped at him.

* * *

"'…_yeah you and me, we can ride on a star—_'"

"'—_if you stay with me girl_—"

"'—_we can rule the _world'—!" Lilah sang really loudly, with a great twirl, dipping low as Reid clutched her waist and laughed. Lilah was a _really_ good singer, but he was never gonna tell _her_ that.

"That movie was just so sad, so warm, so loving," Reid swooned theatrically into Tyler's arms as his best-friend clutched his candy like a five-year-old child at the county fair. Tyler laughed, almost toppled them over, and pushed him back upright.

"I want a beer," Pogue grumbled, biting his thumbnail gloweringly. Reid rolled his eyes. Pogue had been in a bad mood all week.

"You guys are such nerds," Tyler said, watching the girls cavort around like loons, sipping eagerly on his jumbo-sized soda, giggling as Lilah jumped on him, cradling his head in a headlock, laughing. Tyler's eyes were so wide and green Reid knew he had taken in _way_ too much sugar. But he was so giggly around Lilah and Sarah that Reid knew he was finally relaxing around strangers. Tyler had always been shy and reserved, but having assertive, exuberant Lilah around kind of yanked him out of his shell. They were all hyper on too much sugar and caffeine; Caleb liked nachos with jalapenos and a giant soda, Pogue loved melted-butter on his popcorn, Tyler had wanted Airheads and Sour Patch Kids in a little kiddie tray with popcorn and a small drink, Reid was hyper on Swedish Fish and Milk Duds and full-fat Coke and the girls had been helping themselves to whatever candy was within their reach. Reid was still carrying Pogue's half-empty bucket of buttered popcorn and sipping a giant soda and smiled softly as Lilah strutted quickly, Sarah almost running to keep up with the taller girl's stride, both talking so fast it made his head hurt, Lilah's quick English accent overriding Sarah's slow Boston slang, as they compared the male actors in the movie, Lilah gesturing ecstatically, giggling with Sarah as they shared a secret little comment.

"Come on, are we goin' back to the dorms now?" Pogue asked impatiently.

"Pogue, don't be bitter," Lilah admonished delicately. Pogue grumbled all the way to the parking-lot where they'd parked side-by-side.

"Do you want us to give your little toy-car a push?" Reid teased, and Lilah narrowed her eyes, lowering her versatile eyebrows.

"We could tow it, or put it in the back of the Hummer," Tyler giggled softly. Next to the Hummer, Lilah's Mini looked, well, mini!

"Speak to me when there's a credit-crunch and the price of petrol shoots up," Lilah said haughtily (AHA! _mellowenglishgal_ gives an evil little chortle at the intentional irony).

"Whatever. Who's going with Lilah?" Pogue asked.

"_Me_!" Sarah bubbled brightly, bounding over to the Mini. "Can we listen to _Footloose _again?"

"_Absolutely_," Lilah grinned, and they both slung themselves into the car and had peeled out of the lot before the guys could even unlock the Hummer, Bonnie Tyler screaming through the metal, the girls' lips moving rapidly to follow the words enthusiastically.

"I think our girlfriends are mildly unhinged," Reid said thoughtfully, and Caleb chuckled and slung his arm around Reid's shoulders, shoving him towards the passenger seat. _I just said girlfriend_, Reid thought with an internal giggle. He had drunk way too much caffeine.

"So what's with this magic thing, huh?" Caleb asked, as soon as the doors were all closed, leaning through the centre-divide between the two front seats. Reid glanced at him and shrugged. "Lilah has the Power and you didn't say anything about it."

"Hey, I only just found out last week, okay…okay, so it was the day we got the tattoos, but she asked me not to tell you 'cause she didn't know how you'd take it," Reid said quickly.

"What does that mean?" Caleb asked, shaking his head exasperatedly.

"She didn't know whether you were going to try and kill her," Reid said.

"I wouldn't—"

"The past is against you," Tyler spoke up, turning the key in the ignition.

"And what curses were you talking about?" Pogue asked, leaning in beside Caleb. Reid remained mute.

"Is that what you've been reading about all week?" Tyler asked perceptively. Reid nodded. "I knew you weren't just reading it for fun." Some of it _had_ been for fun, but he wasn't going to admit that.

"How powerful is she?" Pogue asked. Reid glanced directly into their eyes before answering.

"She's next in line to leadership of the coven in Britain," he said. "When she Ascends, she'll get the power of all her ancestors, the same as every other leader before her. Her direct lineage has always been Leaders. And her family goes back to the 1000s." _Beat that with your little 1693 covenant_, Reid smirked indulgently. _It's your covenant too, you twat. God, now you're using the same cuss-words as her!_

"So what's she doing here?" Tyler asked, as they drove out of the plaza.

"Her dad's dying," Reid said quietly, glancing in the rear-view mirror at Caleb. "Pogue's dad was her mom's cousin. They're her last real family members."

Technically they were all related; five sisters of a W. Shakespeare, Lilah's direct ancestor, leader of the coven at the time, had married; one to a James Danvers, one to a Thomas Garwin, one to William Parry, one to Harry Putnam, and the last to John Simms, all prominent young men of the coven. It was their sons who had committed the crimes that landed a curse on their descendents, they who had been shipped to the New World and founded the Ipswich Colony, and subsequently banished John Putnam to Salem for continued misuse of the Power.

"There are more of us?" Tyler asked quietly. Tyler had handled gaining the taste of Power when they were thirteen the worst; incredibly shy already, the last thing he wanted was to be different from his friends. He never talked to anyone he didn't know and only really talked to Reid within the coven. Until recently, that was, when Lilah had plucked him out of his little shell and tossed it in the trash.

"Hundreds," Reid shrugged unconcernedly. He'd looked over every family tree of the coven; a few dozen families, all tight-knit—but by no means inbred—some had died off, the last members choosing not to pass on their power, some driven mad by too much of it and killed in an accident, some unable to _have _children, their lines dying out before the eighteenth century. Other families—especially Lilah's, had flourished throughout and were still going strong. Gender was not an issue in heritage of the coven, so Lilah was indisputably first in line.

They returned to the dorms; even Caleb and Pogue, only because Lilah had promised to tell them everything about her. But Lilah hadn't returned to Reid's dorm, so they migrated to Lilah's; the girls were eating Meadowlark Dairy ice-creams and giggling as they stared at the screen of Lilah's laptop.

"What're you girls giggling about?" Reid asked, straddling Lilah's butt as he climbed onto her butt, resting his chin on her shoulder. Facebook. Lilah snapped the laptop shut.

"Nothing my lovely," she said, giving him a vaguely reproving look. She glanced at the guys in the doorway. "Well come in! Don't make the place look untidy." Reid had thought _he_ was messy, and usually the guys would agree. But he'd never really known a girl well enough to ever be invited casually to hang out in her room: clothes were strewn everywhere, the desks were littered with makeup and hair products and straighteners and curling-irons, hair-dryers, scented candles, jewellery boxes, books, DVD cases, random CDs, empty Amazon boxes, teddy-bears.

They got right down to it: Lilah was a witch. She was the most powerful in her coven due to her pure lineage and the rightful heir to the coven when her father passed away. She showed them the books; Caleb instantly settled in Lilah's easy chair and started reading about the _Tryals of the Banished_. Tyler wanted to know about the other kids in Lilah's coven. Pogue listened to everything silently, taking it all in. Sarah wouldn't stop asking questions. It was annoying Reid._ I wonder if she talks during sex_, he thought, looking her over intently. His eyes slid over to Lilah, who was lounging on her bed as she showed Tyler her Facebook account. _Just the same as everybody else_, Reid thought, with a tiny sardonic smile.

* * *

**A.N.**: A little bit of silliness with the _Stardust_ thing, I'd just been listening to that Take That song, so… Anyway, hope you liked it. Please review!

* * *


	11. Party

**A.N.**: Smut. Just a warning. Bottom-half of the chapter.

* * *

"Have you got it?" Lilah asked, as Caleb dropped down into a chair beside Reid, who was flicking through a car magazine while Tyler strained a kidney blowing up some balloons and Pogue tried not to look down a waitress's low neckline as she helped decorate a banner reading 'Happy Birthday Sarah'. Reid was a key component in the decorating initiative.

"No…I felt weird. I can't go in there," Caleb mumbled, glancing around at the boys, daring them to say anything. They'd managed to snag a table in the corner and Lilah had sweet-talked Nicky (it wasn't difficult for her) into letting them set up for a birthday-party at Caleb's house and hide a cake in the back for Sarah's birthday. Lilah rolled her eyes. "People will think I'm a creep."

"You'll buy tampons for your mother but you won't buy your girlfriend _lingerie_? Do I have to point out the significance of that?" Lilah said, hands on her waist, towering threateningly over the sitting teenaged-boy. "Come on, she says you never buy her anything sexy." He looked up indignantly. She was already halfway into convincing him to go into the lingerie-boutique already.

"I've already got her a present," he said adamantly.

"Well, then I suppose Reid will be really happy tonight when Sarah has nothing to wear," Lilah said, and Reid's head shot up, hearing his name, glancing around to see what he was supposed to be responding to.

"Yeah." Lilah rolled her eyes. He went back to his magazine as she gave him a look.

"I can't—," Caleb took a deep breath, trying to suppress his blush. "How would I even know if it fits?" Reid cleared his throat.

"Try it on," he said, flicking the page of his muscle-car magazine. Tyler burst out laughing and the balloon he was trying to blow up squealed around the room as he let go of it and wheezed. Lilah tried not to smile, but her mouth twitched and Reid shot her a deliciously dark smirk.

"I made it easy for you, Caleb; all you have to do is walk into the shop, ask for the things set aside for Sarah Wenham, get them to gift-wrap them and pay for them," Lilah sighed exasperatedly.

"Alright, I'll—I'll go by the store," Caleb sighed, flushing again.

"Good boy," Lilah smiled patronisingly, smacking Caleb's—_rather_ nice—arse as he passed her back to the door. Reid flicked his magazine closed and put his arm on the back of her chair, smiling softly at her.

"So why don't you have anything reserved at the lingerie-store?" he asked nonchalantly. Lilah sighed imperceptibly and flicked her eyes over his gorgeous lips, which were lifted in the corners in that tiniest, most infuriating smirk.

"I already have mine," Lilah said softly. Reid slid a little closer to her, quirking an eyebrow inquisitively. She leaned forward and dusted his cheek with her lips. He pouted, making those baby-blue eyes huge, and Lilah smiled as she kissed his lips. She narrowed her eyes.

"You _did_ eat some of my Milk Duds," she accused, and Reid giggled conspiratorially. Lilah smiled softly and ran her finger down his smooth little button nose, pressing a kiss to his lips. _Yummy_, she smiled. She couldn't wait to get him alone at the party. She hadn't bought out _Agent Provocateur_'s latest sale for no reason. She'd been debating over how she wanted to look; sweet and innocent in a creamy _Jilly_ slip, to taunt with frilly _Cookie_ or the little blue-ribbon-tied _Lena_ knickers, red satin _Gangster_ or the very feminine _Marie_ cotton corset. She'd bought them all. Then she'd realised _Gwendoline_ was on sale. Boy was Reid in for a shock tonight. She'd decided they were going to have sex whether she had to tie him to the bed or not…Well, she was still debating on that!

Her mobile buzzed, odd enough, since no one except the boys or Sarah ever texted her. And they were all—minus Caleb on his lingerie-hunt—sitting around her, and Sarah was at the library (_on her eighteenth birthday, for fuck's sake_, she thought, with an internal eye-roll). She picked it up, gasped delightedly at the name and picture in the little screen, and clicked Accept.

"_LILAH_!" Tallulah wailed. She jumped as the chaos of the nightclub half a street down from her old dorm erupted in her ear. God she loved it in that place. Ten-to-one, Tallulah had been drinking. And her heart crumpled as she thought about the fact that her friends were partying without her. Drinking. Proper alcohol. No need for fake IDs.

And it dropped because of Tallulah's cry.

"Baby, what's wrong?" she asked, alarmed, listening quickly to Tallulah's slurred wailing over 'Raindrops'. "YOU_ WHAT? With OLLIE!!_—DO I HAVE TO REMIND YOU THAT WE ALL TOOK A _BLOOD OATH_ TWO YEARS AGO AFTER WHAT HAPPENED, THAT _THAT_ BOY WOULD NEVER AGAIN BE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO BREED!!" Tyler, Reid and Pogue all gaped at her. She glanced over at Nicky and shot him an apologetic look and hushed her voice before he could point out the 'No Cellphones' sign and toss her out.

"_Tallulah! _How could you _do _that? In _the boys loos! YOU SLUT!!_—No, no, I didn't mean it, sweetheart…It's not _you_, Tallulah, _you're_ _lovely_.It's _Ollie_. He's just a big knob-head with no knob—I _know_ he has a cock, you twat, but you don't have to throw that back in my face—No, Talli, _no_—come on—don't—put Jackie on the phone, will you?—Hi Jacqueline. Listen, I want you to take Talli back to the dorms, put her in her pink sheep-patterned pyjamas and fill her hot-water-bottle and make her hot-chocolate with milk and put on _Titanic_… Well wake her up then… And move the bedside cabinet out of the way in case she wakes up and it's still dark. And put the bucket by the bed. Sounds like she'll need it… Yeah, alright. Get her to call me tomorrow. Thanks Jackie. Tell everyone I miss you all." Lilah sighed heavily and hung up, wondering just _how in the hell_ Talli could do anything that—_disgusting_. Lilah had a good excuse; she hadn't known any better. Ollie had been new then. They knew _all_ about him now.

"What was all that about?" Tyler asked curiously, his eyebrows flickering as they always did. Lilah just shook her head.

"My best-friend, Tallulah—the blonde from my Facebook—she broke up with her boyfr- her _latest_ and was really upset 'cause I know from personal experience he has a _huge_ c—," the guys' eyebrows all rose, smirking gently, and she felt the heat creep up her cheeks. "Anyway, she got drunk and had sex with _Ollie_." She scoffed disgustedly, folding her arms tight against her chest, which had once been violated by that very same scumbag. _Chauvinistic egotistical bigoted self-obsessed prick who STOLE MY VIRGINITY_, Lilah thought, simmering. That bastard had probably done the same thing to Tallulah as he had to Lilah two years ago. She had no idea Tallulah would let herself do anything this stupid because Lilah wasn't around to get her out of trouble. But no, that wasn't right, because the circumstances were completely different. Tallulah never had a chip on her shoulder. And she definitely wasn't as innocent as Lilah—as they had both—been two years ago.

"Who's Ollie?" Reid asked, except he said '_Ahl-ee_', whereas her enunciation of the name was short and bitter.

"He was the… Never mind," Lilah said, waving her hand. She didn't feel like getting into ex-lovers with her boyfriend. Not that she'd had many—exes, that was—but still, it wasn't something one did with boys you'd only just started going out with. _Shouldn't that be the same with sex?_ she asked herself.

"What was that, about pyjamas and _Titanic_?" Tyler asked interestedly.

"Oh, just taking care of her," Lilah sighed. Lilah was the motherly figure of pretty much her entire school. She had to be, since she was going to be Leader when they all grew up. Physically, probably never mentally! "Once when we'd been drinking some of her grandfather's homemade wine, she woke up in the middle of the night, thought she was on the floor and stepped, crashed to the floor from her bed and caught her eye on the corner of her bedside cabinet."

Tyler winced. The sight of Tallulah for weeks with an eye so swollen she couldn't actually see out of it had given Lilah nightmares, and had temporarily reinforced her want for prohibition. Of course, that had been after the first Ollie-Incident, so prohibition hadn't really lasted long. _Bastard. He's always pulling shit like this_, Lilah growled. _When I'm Leader…_ Ooh, he would regret the day he'd been born with a dick. Because she was going to make sure he wouldn't die with one. And she didn't even need to Use for that. Accidents happened with huge butcher's cleavers.

Her tense, brooding mood dissipated as Reid's lips casually pressed against her throat as he nestled his head in the crook of her shoulder.

They collected all of their stuff—the cake was put in the back of the Hummer because Tyler was the most responsible driver—and went to Caleb's to get ready. Lilah had Used to tighten her corset. It was _gorgeous_, took inches off her already tiny waist and pushed everything up. Only problem; she couldn't really breathe. _Oh well_. She stalked down to Caleb's bedroom; he wasn't back yet, but Tyler was lying on Caleb's bed on Caleb's laptop and Reid was going through Caleb's bedside cabinet. Lilah rolled her eyes and perched on the edge of the bed. The boys both gaped at her. Until Pogue appeared. She'd never seen him so turned-out. Gorgeous, polished, exuding confidence and cologne.

"Where d'you think you're goin'?" Reid demanded. Pogue heaved a great breath and shrugged his shoulders under his smartest leather jacket.

"It's a little heavy in here, I'm gonna go for a ride," Pogue said nonchalantly, and the two boys burst out laughing.

"_You're so full of shit, man_!" Reid laughed, tears sparkling in his eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Pogue demanded hostilely.

"What do you mean 'what'? You know _exactly_ what we're talkin' about with La Vida Loca," Reid chuckled. Lilah had heard that in _Four Brothers_. God, she loved that film. Reid did too, but for the gunfights rather than Garrett Hedlund climbing out of the shower.

"I'm not goin' to get any _La Vida Loca_—_anything_," Pogue glowered. The boys giggled again. Pogue was so easily set off; Lilah wondered how they dared piss him off.

"She's got a boyfriend," Tyler warned, his face beautiful with his white-toothed smile.

"She's got a _boyfriend_, shit! She's got hard dick in her right now, she's screaming somebody else's name, and the last thing _she's_ doin' is thinking about _your_ sorry ass," Reid laughed, and Tyler had collapsed on the bed, rigid with laughter that made tears stream down his smooth cheeks.

"I'm telling you right now—"

"Look, Baby-boy is pissing himself—"

"—I'm _not_ going to see that girl _and I'm not_!" Pogue bellowed, storming out of the house.

"Ten bucks he brings her back in her underwear," Reid shot at Tyler. Tyler gulped for air but shook his head.

"Twenty."

"What on _earth_ were you going on about?" Lilah asked, completely miffed. The boys chuckled but Tyler stopped laughing enough to explain.

"Last year, Pogue's girlfriend Kate broke up with him," he said. "They'd been going out pretty much since freshman year, on and off, except she moved away to California this year and left him behind. She's home for the weekend, and she's coming to the party tonight." Lilah remembered Caleb being touchy about inviting Kate—something. _I guess that's why_, she thought.

Pogue reappeared just before the party started—with a beautiful dark-skinned girl wearing only a lacy bra and a thong, a pair of Ugg boots and her quilted coat slung over her arm. Regretfully Tyler surrendered a twenty to Reid's expectant palm. Apparently the two had been caught fucking by Kate's new boyfriend, who had come home with her for the weekend to meet her parents! The boyfriend was on a flight already back to California.

* * *

The party was in full-swing. Sarah and Caleb were at the centre of the dancers in the drawing-room and Reid was chalking his cue in the pool-room, trying to show Aaron and his boys (Lilah had been forced by etiquette to invite them with the rest of the senior Spenser class) how it was done. Lilah watched him from the doorway, sipping her beer. She had chosen to go with black femme-fatale _Gwendoline_, her shortest little black leather skirt, _Parisienne _hold-ups and a pair of black heels, a black leather and diamond-padlock choker around her throat, her hair loose and tousled like Reid liked it, no lipstick, but a handbag full of goodies. She felt gorgeous, a real pin-up, smiling every time a guy caught her eye—which was every few seconds, wishing that Reid would stop playing pool.

"Baby," she smiled, taking Reid's waist and cradling his face as she tackled his tongue with hers, fingers threading through his silky-fine hair. Around them the guys were wolf-whistling and laughing at crude jokes, smacking palms. Lilah took Reid's hand, not caring what gossip followed her about, and they strutted to the foyer, where the staircase was littered with halfway-drunk teenagers—or teenagers making out without realising who they were kissing. When alcohol was free-flowing it was easy to hear people's thoughts, but Lilah had trained her mind years ago to push them aside, when it used to give her migraines that had her confined to her room for days on end. She walked past door after door, wrinkling her nose disgustedly when she heard through their minds what the occupants were doing, getting extremely frustrated the further into the house they got.

Finally, one bedroom, which was an attic-room, but gorgeously decorated with antique Gothic furniture, with an enormous king-sized hand-carved Gothic bed, was empty, and Reid grinned as he slammed her up against the door as she closed it, attacking her. He was _such _a good kisser. Reid moaned softly, their tongues tangling together.

She fumbled with the hem of his t-shirts and stripped them off, exposing his strong chest. He had always been sturdy, and lifting her did not make him lose his balance; he grabbed one thigh and wrapped her leg around him, she lifted the other and tightened her muscles in case he might let her go. All the time they attacked each other with soul-searing kisses neither could have imagined the potency of. Reid ran his hands over her satin-covered sides, pressing his hands under the neckline of her corset, sucking at the tender skin of her neck, nipping her earlobe, sliding his hand under the leather of her skirt up her thigh, making her tremble and get really hot. His fingers brushed over her pussy; she wasn't wearing underwear. She never did when she was with Reid. Her gasp for breath was stifled by his lips as he pushed a finger inside her, drawing it back and pushing in again rhythmically, making her wet. Gasping, she fumbled in a rush to unbutton his jeans and undo the zip, and as soon as he was free he moaned as she ran her hand over him. In a split-second, he pushed her against the door and had himself poised. Lilah stared into his eyes, pressing her swollen lips against his and moaning.

"I want you," he gasped. With the slightest nod of the head as indication, which was more than the fire burning in her eyes needed, he pushed with a sharp thrust into her. Her lips parted and her eyes closed, a tiny gasp of satisfaction, completeness, escaped her. _Oh fucking hell_, she thought, complete calm and fulfilment making her moan as he pressed against her width and threatened to push it as he pushed harder into her, eliciting a tiny, stifled moan as Lilah let her head hang back, and getting more energy from her look of complete peacefulness, he followed his lust, trying to sate the throbbing of his cock as she pulsed so closely around it. He thrust into her again, withdrew slightly, banged her against the door, and then switched his strategy.

Lilah straddled him on the bed, and she preferred it this way; she was in control, moving her hips in a circular motion just slowly enough to keep him from falling over the edge too quickly but making him grapple with her waist in frustration as she prolonged it. He had her waist grasped tight in his strong, capable hands, as she lolled back as she gasped, breathless, and moved around him, the pulsating driving her mad. Reid reached up, grabbed her face, and locked her tongue in a battle for dominance, moaning breathlessly, grunting when she used more force, and pressing her hard against him, rocking them as he thought they weren't going quickly enough, arms around her. He gasped and fell back again as she moaned, bucking her hips against him, his breathing becoming ragged. She grinned breathily, riding him; she loved this part. He was losing control. So was she.

He grabbed her by the waist, threw her down on the bed, and pounced on her, seizing dominance with her lips and tongue as he forced her legs back on herself, gripping her thighs tight in his grasp, as he drove into her, her back arching into him, running his tongue tantalisingly along the column of her throat, making her shiver and moan softly. She couldn't help moaning loudly with every thrust inside her. He ran his hands over her décolleté and thrust into her again, eliciting another of those moans which drove her mad. Every second, he thrust in and out, more forceful, lustful, animalistic, wild and untamed, his hips crashing into her thighs with so much force their bodies jumped on the bed. Lilah's moans turned to breathy cries, her fingernails digging into his back, scraping the skin away raw, clinging to him, thrusting and thrusting, hearing his gasps come short and sweet in her ear. Again and again and again, until he was engorged even larger, her muscles clenched like an iron vice around him, and several more forceful plunges deeper inside her than ever before, and she wrapped her limbs tight around him and cried out, head thrust back, an explosion sending fire through her veins, the limbs clamped around him loosening as she rode that wave. Reid shoved into her again and cried out, muffled into her lips, as he came violently.

She gazed up at him as he panted, propped over her with his hands either side of her head, her hands resting on his slick torso, realising how much she was trembling. Reid trembled too. She reached up and smoothed the damp hair from his forehead, cradling his face as she pressed a tender kiss to his beautiful lips. He relaxed, the trembling stopped, and though he—regretfully for her—withdrew from her, he remained pressed on top of her comfortably, heat radiating from every atom of his being.

Lilah remembered a word they'd used to describe this: "Incredible." Reid hummed slightly, pressing his lips to hers, smiling.

* * *

**A.N.** Yeah... Um, review?

* * *


	12. Talli

**A.N.**: The inspiration for this first scene comes from my mother (who I've been told I'm rapidly turning into—eek!) who actually did gatecrash an all-guys' party at six a.m.!

* * *

She couldn't help it. She had never been one to let sleeping dogs lie. She'd always been the bravest—sometimes the only one reckless enough—to sort out problems such as this.

This was punishment in some way for Sarah's party. The party they'd thrown at Caleb's; how she and Reid had walked casually downstairs hand-in-hand, sated, glowing and extremely peaceful. Completely obvious to everyone they had had sex. So what? She wasn't some frigid American little bitch (NO OFFENCE INTENDED!! I lived in California for five years, some of the best people I've met!) afraid to show a bit of breast or leg—a la Kira. But people didn't like seeing—no, _Aaron_ didn't like seeing—that she was, well, in his eyes, she supposed, officially _taken_. Perhaps he was traditionalist in spite of his hypocritically whorish behaviour.

She wasn't afraid of exuding her sexuality.

And she wasn't afraid, at five o'clock in the morning, despite Sarah's warnings and suggestions they just call the house-parents, to march downstairs to the boys' dorms, where the party had been thrashing since ten o'clock last night. She had been woken at midnight, at one, at two—at three she hadn't bothered trying to get back to sleep. She pranced into one of the open dorms, plonked down on a desk chair, folded her thighs, crossed her arms over her chest and glared resolutely at the guys collectively.

Then it hit her.

There were no girls here.

She didn't know there were any gay guys at Spenser.

She was sure there weren't any.

_Oh shit_.

A few of the guys shot her glances, and she smirked as they all huddled and withdrew to the kitchen. She could see them through the internal window. They kept glancing at her, and were all whispering to each other—amazing, over the volume of the music. _Amazing that Reid and Tyler are actually asleep_, she thought, wishing that Reid would suddenly appear in his doorway across the hall. They could have anything stashed in these rooms. Guns. Well, they didn't need guns to inflict dam…_No, don't think about it_, Lilah thought, taking a deep breath to dispel any fear that might threaten to make her back down. She was more than a match for them if they even _attempted_ to imply they might.

They sent Ryan out. He was a decent enough bloke. A bit on the arrogant side, but weren't they all? But he was nicer than some of the others.

"You want a beer?" he asked. _AT FIVE FUCKING O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING_! Where they had smuggled beer in from, she didn't know. She was surprised they weren't all actually passed out or puking already. _Mind you, a baby couldn't get tipsy off that coloured water_.

"No thank you," Lilah said politely. He scuttled off. They converged around him, talking again. She waiting, jigging her foot impatiently. They dispatched another. He was new to her. He didn't hang out at Nicky's.

"You know, you're not showing us any respect," he said vehemently. Lilah didn't blanch. It riled her. _ANY RESPECT! I'LL SHOW YOU NO FUCKING RESPECT!!_ "You're not allowed to be in the guys' dorms, we can call the…" His words trailed off as a gloating smile graced Lilah's lips.

"Wonderful, you _call_ the house-parents," she smiled girlishly, handing him the dorm owner's cordless phone from the dock. She settled in the chair. The boy scuttled back to the kitchen. She glanced down the corridor; Tyler was frowning at her.

"Are you with them?" he asked bemusedly. She shook her head. "Want me to call H.P.?" Code for House-Parents and clues that led her to believe Harry Potter was his closet obsession. She nodded. Ten minutes later, phone-calls were being made by the Provost to the parents and the guys were in deep shit because of the smuggled booze. Reid and Tyler hadn't been certain if she'd been partying with them. Reid had called her a million different things in three languages—English, French, German—before he calmed down and told her that she was a real idiot—putting it mildly—because those guys had been drinking and she was _really_ hot. And fuckable. And they had her outnumbered.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Lilah said gently, pressing a tiny kiss to his lips. _He was worried about me_, she smiled blithely. "Now I'm going to go pass out. I won't be awake 'til after noon."

"I'll bring you some lunch," Reid said softly, humming slightly as he pressed her lips with his again, his fingers intertwining with hers as he slowly walked her backwards towards the stairs and her dorm.

"Want to come back with me?" she asked, tugging him towards the stairs by his waist. He grinned down at her, his hair tousled and his eyes bright.

"Won't Sarah be awake soon?" he asked, glancing down the corridor to make sure none of the house-parents were still around. Giggling, they ran up the stairs to Lilah's dorm.

* * *

The first week of October had brought with it the stunning changing leaves, the crisp autumn air, the chill about the ears that brought many—such as Lilah—to wear thick knitted hats with pompoms on the top, thick, hot soups and casseroles to the lunchtime menus and the thicker coats out of storage. P.E. was indoors from now on, after the first rain. The boys were like restless caged animals in the dorms, watching the window for any sudden change in the rain thrashing the glass.

"Miss Shakespeare—!"

"I didn't do it!" Lilah said, jerking awake and glancing around guiltily. Everyone else in her English class laughed.

"Guilty conscience, Lilah?" Mr Sears smirked. "The Provost requests you go to his office immediately," Reid glanced warily at her_. What've we done wrong this week?_ She asked him. _It's Monday_, he responded with a shrug. _Probably the party last night_.

_No one saw us last night, did they?_ she asked. They could get busted for her having had a boy in her dorm after-hours last-night. Reid shook his head almost imperceptibly. She shrugged.

"Do I need to take my things?" she asked.

"I would think so," Sears sighed, scrawling something across the board. "Hurry up." Lilah gathered her things and shot Reid a look that told him to take notes for her, which he, grumbling, did. Lilah stalked out of the lecture theatre and across campus to the faculty building, almost freezing in the process. The Provost's office was stuck in the Victorian era, candle sconces still on the walls either side of the flickering fireplace. She stuck her head around the door.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Was he going to land her in shit for breaking up the party last night?

"Yes, Lilah, come on in," Provost Stephens smiled, waving her inside. She took a seat in front of his imposing desk and glanced around, waiting for him to say something. "I'm sorry to pull you out of your lecture, Lilah. I just wanted to have a talk, see how you're settling in to life here at Spenser. Are you enjoying yourself?" Relief swept over her.

"Yes sir," Lilah beamed, answering honestly.

"I understand you have become friendly with Reid Garwin and his friends," Provost Stephens smiled. _Yeah, we've been _getting friendly_ a lot_, Lilah smirked to herself. "They're a wonderful set of boys." Lilah grinned. "And how are your classes going? I know you were concerned about the workload."

"I'm doing really well," Lilah smiled blithely. She'd gotten an A+ in the last History assignment, 100 on the last English quiz and she prattled on with the native-French teacher like a natural. "I've been managing my time really well." _Plus I can animate objects with my mind so I can write two papers at once_, she thought with an internal smirk.

"And you've joined the swim-team. Your mother was a regional champion, too," Provost Stephens smiled. "I know you had a bit of trouble last week, but I'm glad you're getting involved." She'd been forced to come and see the Provost last week because of her absences, and explain why she wasn't at school. He had excused her, and though he suggested perhaps going to see one of the school-counsellors, he let her be.

"Well, the boys kind of make it difficult to avoid," Lilah laughed softly. She couldn't go anywhere without Tyler wanting to tag along, to the book shop or just hanging out at Nicky's after lessons. She and Reid were joined at the hip, and she was growing more and more in like with him every day.

"Well, wonderful, wonderful," Provost Stephens smiled. "Wonderful. And I'm sorry about the ruckus last night. I assure you we have no tolerance for that kind of behaviour in our students, and they have been punished. I don't want you to think Spenser is just one of those party schools you see on MIT or something." _I think you mean MTV_, Lilah thought, not correcting him.

"Well, if that's all, you can go on back to your lessons," Provost Stephens smiled. She knew her father had made an incredible donation to the school to extend the library. _No wonder he's taking such good care of me_, Lilah thought, smiling as she said goodbye and picked up her things, closing the door behind her, rolling her eyes. She had missed the end of English, so headed straight to her History lecture before the bell.

* * *

Lilah didn't realise just how many boys had actually been partying last night until she walked into her History lecture later on Monday morning. Half the class was missing, a quarter of the guys were still sat in their seats. Oddly, it wasn't the Sons who were missing—Reid and Tyler were both notorious for ditching lessons, especially eight a.m.-start lessons on Monday mornings. Lilah could tell Tillman was disappointed some of his best students were absent, but Caleb was still there, so all was well. Caleb was the best _male_ student. Although she had never studied American history before (and she had been branded 'Redcoat' by Reid, who wouldn't let her borrow money even for the vending-machines during break because it that would violate 'No taxation without Representation') she was the best overall student. Tillman could always count on her to put her hand up to ask a complex question nobody had thought of or to have finished the essays he assigned three days early so he could proofread it. She loved History.

She loved that Reid sat beside her every lesson with his thumb stroking her thigh.

And the fact that she could draw on his face with Tyler's coloured Sharpie-markers when he fell asleep.

But today it was weird. The boys had all been indeterminately suspended and the parents were still trying to convince the Provost not to call the police. That's what Tyler said anyway; his mother was head of the P.T.A. and knew all the gossip of Spenser. It was strange to think such a social-butterfly of a woman could have such a bashful child.

Kira sat glaring at Lilah or pining at Aaron's empty seat beside her. Lilah's hand flew over her paper as she wrote down her notes, alternately nudging Reid to wake him up or pointing out the passage they were reading from to Tyler in case Tillman called on him to read—as he did _every _lesson to make sure one, at least, of the Troublesome Two was actually awake.

Some of the boys eventually filed in, shame-faced, shooting Lilah glowers she might have been scared off had she not had the Power and could smite them down just _because_ of those looks they gave her. Aaron took his seat next to Kira, who immediately started petting him affectionately, running her fingertips through his hair.

* * *

Tuesday morning, after the previous night had been spent at Nicky's, Lilah woke up cuddled with Reid, in his bed, still in only her sweet _Lena_ knickers and Reid's vest. She smiled softly and snuggled closer, kissing his collarbone tenderly, sighing as she hugged his waist. Reid sighed and nuzzled her sleepily, lips pecking at hers, hot arms wrapping around her.

"I am awake, you know," Tyler's voice said groggily, and Lilah giggled as she glanced over at Tyler's messy bed; he was propped up against his pillows, getting a little bit of PSP-playing in before the mad-dash for the showers and breakfast.

"Morning Tyler," Lilah said brightly. "Reid—_get off me_!"

"So I take it you guys had a good night last night," Tyler smirked, book-marking her page.

"Could've been better," Reid sighed, stretching luxuriously under Lilah's duvet as she whipped a t-shirt off the floor and tugged it on, giggling up at her from the pillow until she dug her fingernails into him as she wrapped her fist around him. Tyler giggled as Reid yelped in a most unmanly way.

"Come on, you lazy wanker, get out of bed," Lilah said, tickling the soles of Reid's feet with her nails, one place she knew apart from others he was extremely sensitive to tickles. He squirmed and curled up tight under the duvet, peering owlishly over it at her to see if she was going to do anything dangerous to any other parts of his anatomy.

"Fine. I'm going to go and shower." Lilah was back and dressed in twenty minutes, hair dried and styled glamorously like a pin-up, like he loved it, a coat of her new favourite mulled-wine lipstick on, eyelashes curled luxuriously. _I could audition for St. Trinian's_, she thought, rolling her eyes at Reid as he slept. She got a washcloth from Tyler's stash, rinsed it under the cold-water tap and attacked Reid with it. He yelled indignantly at the rude awakening. Grumbling, he ambled to the showers, returning freshly-shaved and smelling gorgeous.

"I have to get my things from my dorm," Lilah said, and Reid came with her to her room. She barged in and stilled as the person lying under her duvet yelped and sat bolt-upright at the rude awakening. Lilah yelled ecstatically as she saw who the blonde girl was when her shoulder-length golden locks settled.

"TALLI!"

"ZIGGY!" Talli shrieked, catching Lilah in her arms as she launched herself onto the bed at her best-friend, who caught her and knocked them back onto the bed, straddling Talli's hips, hugging the life out of her, suffocating Talli in her chest. It _was _Talli: a beautiful oval face with stunning sapphire eyes, a pert little nose achieved through surgery after it was broken during field-hockey, the sweet smile, her short golden-blonde hair tousled.

"_What the hell are you doing here_?" Lilah yelled, ecstatic.

"I need air!" Talli giggled loudly, and Lilah released her, beaming.

"Lilah, who's this?" Reid asked smilingly.

"She's my lover," Lilah said, keeping her face completely serious. Talli grasped her face and planted a kiss on her lips; Tyler (who had accompanied them downstairs) and _Reid_—she rolled her eyes—moaned at the show.

"Wow!" Talli stopped still, gawping at Reid over Lilah's shoulder. "Jesus, Lilah, you don't mess around, do you?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded excitedly. Talli laughed as she reached over and pulled her black quilted Chanel handbag closer to her.

"I have things for you," she beamed, rooting through her handbag, pulling out a full sheet of _Hotel Chocolat _'Caramellow'. Lilah melted, moaning, undoing the corner of the Caramellow bar and smelling the chocolate. "And there's plenty more where _that_ came from. And look—" Talli produced an industrial-sized box of PG Tips teabags, and _the book_.

"Oh my gosh!" Lilah gasped loudly, reaching for the book, ecstatic.

"Didn't think I'd come here without bringing that, did you?" Talli asked, laughing. "From the look of your Facebook I think you need it." Though disguised as a gothic gold-leaf-embellished Bible, this book was _hardly_ about abstaining from sin. Abstaining from boredom was more like it. It was a communal journal, a scrapbook of sorts, documenting the girls' lives since puberty. Every boy they'd ever gone out with, every sexual position they'd tried and favoured, every night they wanted to remember for the rest of their lives—it was all in that book. Only she and Talli could read it, unless they allowed someone to see it.

"What d'you mean _'by the look of my Facebook_'?" Lilah demanded indignantly. Talli slid her eyes over Reid and smirked.

"Well, _do_ you need to add to it?" she asked, brandishing the book. Lilah took it and they both giggled. Lilah turned to Talli. "What are you doing here?"

"I transferred here," Talli grinned.

"How did you get in here—you didn't…_with the headmaster_, did you?" Lilah asked, inching away from her best-friend who was naked except for an almost-see-through chiffon bra and knickers—_Lena_, from Agent Provocateur—underneath the duvet, mentally cringing at the image she got of Talli with the headmaster at their old school. _So wrong_.

"That was a joke. I threatened to tell Mummy about Daddy's affair with the Svetlana," Talli said, her face completely serious, except for the artfully-plucked eyebrows rising innocently.

"Aah, _Svetlana_," Lilah said, relishing the name. Svetlana, their metaphorical big-sister, the one who was an even worse party-girl than Talli and feistier than Lilah, whom they'd met at a cocktail bar in Chelsea. _No wonder Mr Sheldon went for her_, she thought.

"But how did you get the teachers to give you references?" Lilah asked. Before Spenser, she and Talli had been two of the most reputable slackers in the school.

"Cash." Lilah laughed.

"You bribed them!" she chuckled.

"It was that or sexual favours, but you know my cut-off age is twenty-six," Talli shrugged, dead serious. Reid choked and shuddered beside her. Lilah gave him a look and he flushed, giggled, and tried not to catch Tyler's eye as his best-friend shuddered with suppressed laughter hiding behind him. Talli's eyes roved over Tyler's flushed, tear-streaked face and she turned back to Lilah.

_He's so cute_, she heard Talli's voice gush, though her face was only mildly amused. _Those eyes_!

_Don't swoon_, Lilah smirked.

_Is he going out with anyone?_

_No,_ Lilah bit back a laugh. _He's really shy. Don't just jump him. He's not like that._

"I can't believe you're here. I can't believe you did this for me!" Lilah sighed, hugging Talli.

"This is so typical of me, Ziggy," Talli smiled, striking her Zippo and lighting a long cigarette. Lilah gave her a reproving look. Talli rolled her eyes, reached over to open the window and stubbed the cigarette out on the stone windowsill.

"'Ziggy'?"

"Yes," Talli smirked at Lilah. "Because she gets all over the place."

"Talk to me when you take an oath of chastity," Lilah said, pinging the shoulder-strap of Talli's pretty bra. She slapped her hand away playfully.

_Is he hot naked?_

_Scorching_, Lilah said, smirking a glance at Reid. He raised an eyebrow archly, going through Sarah's bedside cabinet and stealing some condoms from the little box. _Talk of seeing people naked—Ollie? Ew!_

_I was upset and drunk__ and you weren't there to wallow with me_, she said. _Don't talk about it, it only depresses me. And besides, you were there first_.

_Stop reminding me_, Lilah thought vehemently. _You're supposed to learn from my mistakes_.

_Tell me about it. You'll never guess what he kept yelling_, Talli smirked. Lilah made the unfortunate mistake of glancing at her best-friend. _LILAH!!_

"_EW_!"

The boys turned to look at her. Tyler was half-asleep on Sarah's bed, so he yelped as he woke. She and Talli collapsed into each other with their giggles. Tyler tried to hide his flushed face, probably thinking they were talking about him.

_Are you doin' that mind-reading thing?_ Reid's voice poked at her. She glanced to her side and beamed. He rolled his eyes amusedly. _What's she saying about Tyler?_

_Nothing_.

"So why are you both giggling?"

"Sex."

"Do you girls mind if I jump in there with you?" Reid asked sleepily, pouting over at them.

"Go and get some breakfast," Lilah said.

"And take him with you," Talli grinned, eyes following Tyler. He flushed bashfully. "See you later, big-boy." Lilah giggled softly.

"Poor baby. You embarrassed him," Lilah sighed, smiling.

"He's so sweet-looking," Talli hummed softly.

"Okay, so spill," Lilah demanded. "What exactly are you doing here?"

* * *

**A.N.**: Cliff-hanger! Evil laugh! (It _is_ a cliff-hanger, by the way!) I liked writing that!

* * *


	13. Bye

**A.N.**: Sorry for the delay! UCAS applications for university have to be in next Friday, gulp. So here's another chapter. It's quite long, so that should keep you occupied for a while!

* * *

"I told you, I tra—" Lilah gave her best-friend a look. Talli sighed, glancing at Reid first before she spoke. "Alright. The truth is…" Talli couldn't look her in the face, kept glancing at Reid; at anything that wasn't Lilah's eyes. She looked like a trapped rabbit, or a squirming, helpless mouse being offered to a hissing viper. Except she'd be one of those beautiful ones with the squeaky-clean whiskers and the brilliant ink-droplet eyes.

"Hasn't the school told you yet?" Talli asked, her voice hushed anxiously, her lovely eyes wide and scared. Lilah didn't like that Talli wasn't telling her something, and that she had blocked her mind off from Lilah listening.

"Told me what?" she demanded waspishly.

"Your father is almost dead."

All the air was knocked violently from Lilah's body. That was impossible.

"_No_," she said indignantly. She couldn't believe Tallulah would travel all this way to lie to her like this. She got off the bed, backing away from Talli. Tallulah quickly pulled some of Lilah's closest clothing to her and dressed.

"It's as true as I'm standing here, Lilah," Tallulah said seriously. _He's not nearly dead_, she whispered to herself. _He can't be that bad already_. "You know I've never lied to you. He wanted me to come here so I can…"

"What? Prepare me?" Lilah said, blinking furiously, eyes wide and horrified. She knew Daddy was ill, she just didn't think he would fade this quickly. "Wh—when did you last see him?"

"Two days ago, at the hospital, when he asked me to come here," Talli said brokenly. That was enough to convince Lilah. Whereas her own parents were selfish narcissistic cunts, Lilah's father had really been the parental figure in Tallulah's life as much as Lilah's, and she loved him as much as Lilah did. "He didn't even _look_ like him anymore." Lilah clutched at her blouse, tugging on it with fingers so tight the nails cut through the fabric to her palms, eyes burning and smarting.

"Wh—why didn't he tell me?" she whimpered. To send Talli as messenger was one thing, not telling her himself made it worse. Talli laughed softly, wiping a tear away from her cheek brusquely. She wasn't one for ruining her makeup.

"Would _you_ want to tell you that you were dying?" she asked, smiling weakly, her lips trembling. Reid kept silent in his side of the room. Lilah didn't know what to do. She strode to the door, jerked back into the room, changed her mind, and again, and finally just stopped in the middle of Tyler and Reid's messy dorm-room that smelled of boy and sex and hid her face in her hands with a whimper._ He can't die_.

She was enveloped with warm, incredibly strong arms and a scent that was spicy and musky and warm. Reid. He hugged her tight to him, kissing her head, sighing heavily into her shoulder as she fisted his t-shirt.

"He's not gone, okay," he said softly, placing his hands with gentle reassuring strength on her shoulders, gazing into her eyes. "He's not gone yet. Call him. Talk to him." Lilah blinked the tears out of her eyes, licking her lips as a dry sob threatened to escape, and nodded. _Yes, talk to him_. "I'll give an excuse to Barnard." Lilah glanced up at him miserably. "I'll _behave_ myself." He kissed her lips affectionately, lingeringly, calming her down.

"I'd better go and shower," Talli said softly.

"The girls' showers are down the corridor," Lilah sniffled miserably, and Talli picked up her pace.

Reid smiled gently and captured her lips again. She couldn't help it. She couldn't help her mind wandering to other things, even though her father could potentially have been drawing his very last breath at this very moment, but she couldn't stop thinking about Reid's lips, and going out to Nicky's tonight, and having Talli here.

* * *

Reid was walking with Tyler out of Lilah's dorm to the kitchen for breakfast, leaving his girlfriend to dial long-distance to England; he encountered Talli strutting back to Lilah's dorm drenched, wrapped in a white towel. She shot him a coy smile as she walked into Lilah's dorm. As she opened the door, Lilah's bellow echoed through the empty panelled corridor;

"…_I DON'T CARE IF HE'S IN THERE! FOR THE AMOUNT OF MONEY WE PAY YOU, YOU CAN TURN THE MACHINE BACK ON LATER AFTER HE'S EXPLAINED TO ME WHY HE DIDN'T TELL ME HE'S IN CRITICAL CONDITION!!!_" Reid jumped. Talli closed the door again, anxiety tugging at her lips.

"Maybe I'll give her a few minutes," she said lightly, leaning against the door. Lilah's voice rose, even through the panelling, and they all cringed as she shouted at what Reid presumed to be a nurse on the other end of the phone-call.

"When did you get here, anyway?" Reid asked, glancing at Talli. Breakfast could wait.

"Midnight last night."

"What the hell were you doin' in Lilah's dorm?" Reid asked, not intending to sound rude.

"My new roommate told me Lilah's room number. I wanted to say hello," Talli said, resting her head against the wall and sliding those stunning sapphire eyes over them.

"Who's your roommate?" Reid asked.

"A girl with long red hair," Talli said, wrinkling her nose. "Very stuck-up. I didn't catch her name. I don't really think she's human."

"Kira," the boys said together.

"Yes, that was it," Talli nodded. Lilah's shouts disappeared. The hall seemed to ring with the silence.

They peeked quietly into the bedroom; Lilah was curled up on Reid's bed, speaking so quietly he couldn't hear what she was saying. The phone buzzed alternately as she stopped speaking, sometimes overriding a sniffle from her. Tallulah quietly dressed and Reid kissed the top of Lilah's head before leaving the room, closing the door silently behind him, taking it upon himself to guide Talli around Spenser.

_Wish I had this chance_, he thought resentfully. He'd have given anything to have picked up that phone-call on the morning of September the eleventh. Just to hear his mother's voice for real one last time, saying to him, not the machine, that she loved him, that she missed him. Though it probably didn't seem like it to Lilah, she had a supreme advantage over him; she had time to say goodbye, say everything she needed and wanted to before _it_ happened. _Maybe you should tell her that_, he thought, nodding to himself as he agreed.

German dragged on. Reid found himself doodling another tattoo sketch in the margin of his notebook. Luckily he was naturally bright and could answer any question Frau Klein shot at him no matter how difficult it was to understand—Frau Klein spoke only in German—and always aced his tests. He was worrying about Lilah.

* * *

She reappeared at P.E. It was one _lesson_ she actually enjoyed—because they were still on swimming and all of the guys wore their 'little, little swim-shorts'. He was waiting by the pool-cover with Tyler, watching the girls' locker-rooms. He knew Tyler was watching for Tallulah. He'd been ogling that girl _all day_. It wasn't as strange now to listen to the delicious girlish giggles of a mellifluous English voice. Tyler liked it as much as he did. He wasn't really expecting Lilah to turn up for practice, especially if she was in a mood like she had been two weeks ago, but she strolled out of the changing-rooms in her tight Speedo, all leg and breast, her hair tugged back into her customary doubled-over French-plait. She walked over to him languidly, letting her arms hang loose around his waist.

"I don't think I'm ever going to speak to him again," she whimpered softly into his chest. Reid felt like shit because _she_ felt like shit. Her brain was in turmoil. He cradled her cheeks tenderly and kissed her lips. He knew when he was feeling like shit, all he needed was for someone to show him a little bit of compassion and he would cry it out and feel a lot better after a pint of ice-cream. He was a bit of a girl about that. It was Mrs Simms' fault.

"Sweetheart," he said softly. "How ya doin'?" _Pretty lame, Reid_, he thought.

"Okay I suppose." _You sound so miserable_, he pined. He hated seeing her like this.

"Just okay?" he prompted gently. She sniffed harshly, probably preventing herself from crying. It wasn't so good on the sinuses when you were supposed to swim for an hour.

"What did your dad say?" Tyler asked quietly. Lilah sighed softly, eyes downcast.

"Goodbye," she said, barely audible over the echo of the other swimmers. "What kind of a daughter am I if all I can think about is the History quiz I missed this morning?" she asked miserably. Reid cocked his head to one side, wondering where she was going with this. "I keep trying to think about Daddy, hoping my some freak occurrence he'll be okay, but then all this other stuff keeps getting in the way. Stupid things, like the test, and like showing Talli around, and going out with you tonight." He knew exactly how she felt. He'd tried to mourn. But the thing that really sent him over the edge when his parents were killed was the fact that he _couldn't_. He just kept—like Lilah was going through right now—thinking about other things, what was going on in his life.

"That doesn't mean you're a horrible daughter," Reid said gently, stroking a loose lock of glistening dark hair behind her ears. She snivelled miserably and turned her cheek into his palm. "When—when my mom and dad…didn't come home that day, I was shocked, you know, but it didn't seem real. So I kind of…let myself forget about it. There was a dance on that Friday, and I'd asked Josephine Smithson to go with me." Lilah sniffed and glared.

"_Josephine Smithson_, that _slut_?" He grinned.

"She had shiny hair. And Pogue's parents were gonna take us all to a football game that Saturday," Reid said. "It's just…when your brain thinks it's thought about something for too long, like calculus, it switches over to something else so it doesn't overheat." Lilah's lips twitched.

"It's not going to work, Reid," she said sombrely. "I'm _not_ going to laugh." She settled back on the pool-cover and crossed her arms over her chest, turning her face away slightly.

"No, no, no, I'm just trying to say, if you think about something too long…smoke'll come out of your ears," Reid said, cradling her body with a devilish grin, kissing her neck tenderly.

"Stop it."

"And steam will come out of your nose," he said, kissing her jaw.

"_Reid_!"

"Fire will shoot out of your mouth," Reid said, kissing her lips. "I'll _love _that! Hell, I _would_ love it; you'll scare the hell out of all the kids we have to take 'round on Halloween."

"Thanks, Reid," she sighed. He nudged her nose in their little affectionate thing and their kiss was lingering.

"Lilah?" _Kira, fucking—_

"What?" Lilah sighed heavily, turning to Kira.

"Your _friend_ won't come out of the changing-rooms," Kira said.

"You mean your new _roommate_?" Tyler asked, smirking deliciously. Kira's daddy paid a lot of money to make sure Kira was alone in a two-person dorm. Talli had popped her personal-bubble big time. That, and the fact that Talli had let Aaron flirt shamelessly with her all afternoon, was cause enough for Kira to be extremely pissed off with Tallulah. Lilah sighed again, letting her head loll back in impatience.

"She hates getting her hair wet," she said to herself, strolling to the entrance of the girls' locker-rooms. "_Tallulah Lintott-Sheldon_! You let _Ollie_ see you naked and yet you won't wear a swimsuit in front of fifty strangers. Come out _now_!"

"_No_—_and I thought we agreed _never_ to talk about _that_ in public_," Talli's shriek rang back. Lilah dove into the doorway and started tugging her friend bodily from the locker-room.

"_Come on_, Talli! It's not that bad!" she grunted, baring her teeth against the restraint as Talli grabbed the doorframe. Reid glanced at Tyler: his eyes were fixed on the flash of legs as Talli pretty much fought tooth-and-nail not to have to swim.

"I haven't done P.E. since primary-school," Talli resisted.

"_Neither had I_!" Lilah said indignantly. "Come on, Talli; you get to see Tyler and Pogue in their little, little swim-shorts." Beside him, Tyler flushed, and Reid chuckled as Tallulah stilled, eyebrows flying up, her eyes flashing in intrigue. He was sure—yeah, there it was, that telltale little smirk making the dimples wink—that the girls were silently exchanging words. He hated that the ability to communicate mentally was restricted to bilaterally, not multilaterally. _Perhaps you should look into that_, Reid told himself. Talli came quietly, strolling beside a sauntering Lilah, checking out the 'talent,' as Lilah would call it, the boys in the class.

"How come there is such a minority of girls in this class?" Talli asked, not exactly sounding too disappointed.

"I've got connections," Lilah shrugged, and Talli laughed. "No. The boys are on the swim-team or the American football-team."

"What the hell _is_ American-football, anyway? Isn't it just some pussy-version of rugby with your weight in padding?" Talli asked, and Lilah's mouth twitched amusedly.

"That about sums it up," Lilah sighed airily.

"Hey, you're lucky Caleb isn't here," Reid said, wiggling his finger threateningly at Lilah. She giggled and grabbed it, tucking his arm around her waist. "I seem to remember you enjoying the game last Friday."

"That's because all of the team lines up with their back to me so I can see their _fine_ arses," Lilah said, rolling her eyes as if this should have been obvious.

"And the chilli-cheese nachos were _good_," Tyler grinned. "Hey, Pogue." Reid smirked as Talli's eyes shot straight towards their model-pretty gym-freak friend. _He's wearing those ridiculous shorts again_, he thought, rolling his eyes. Lilah's shoulders started to shake; glancing at her face, he saw she was trying to contain her giggles, her eyes fixed on Talli's.

"I don't like these looks you're giving each other," Reid said nervously. "I feel like you're rating us."

"I'm not bothering with you. You're off the market," Talli said, and Lilah let out a giggle.

"Wow. A girl who _won't_ go after her best-friend's boyfriend!" Pogue's eyebrows rose. "That's new."

"Whatever _happened_ to Kate on Friday night?" Tyler asked, beaming so innocently Pogue couldn't smack him. Pogue's lack of response was enough to the boys to show nothing had been gained after the party.

"You're better off without her," Lilah said haughtily, straightening her shoulders boldly. "I didn't like her. She was flirting with anything that had a big enough cock." _She made them blush. She made them blush_, Reid sang to himself, giggling at Pogue's and Tyler's flushed faces.

"I was thinking something more subtle," Talli laughed softly.

"_EVERYBODY IN THE POOL_!" Coach's yell rang out and the shrill whistle made them cringe, and they all—Talli somewhat reluctantly—made their way to the pool's edge. She was the last one on the edge. Reid exchanged a cunning look with Tyler. Tyler jumped up in the water, grabbed Talli's relaxed arm, and gave an almighty tug that sent Talli crashing into the water on top of him. Everyone laughed as the two emerged; Talli was spluttering indignantly, pushing the water from her face and forcing her sopping hair back, glaring daggers at Tyler.

"Oooh, you're in big trouble. _Big_ trouble!" she shuddered, the cold water not yet acclimatising her body.

"What? You look good wet!" Tyler said, without even blushing. Words could not express how proud Reid was that his little baby-boy was growing up so fast!

"Shut up!"

Reid had been trying to teach Tyler how to communicate mentally, but he rarely communicated with words anyway, so it was difficult to _speak_, figuratively, with Tyler during P.E. or during swim-practice directly afterwards. Somehow Tallulah's perspective on swimming had altered dramatically from the first argument trying to get her out of the changing-rooms, and she stayed during swim-practice so Coach could see how good she was, whether there was a spot for her on the team.

"I think I just outdid my limit for physical exercise outside of the bedroom for the entire _decade_," Talli moaned, lethargically climbing the chrome ladder out of the pool at the end of practice.

"You didn't have to stay!" Lilah laughed softly.

"So what are we doing now?" Tallulah asked, linking her arm around Lilah's waist. _That's my spot_, Reid glared, pouting. The girls completely ignored them, chattering away happily as they sauntered to the girls' locker-rooms. Tyler didn't say anything about Talli while they showered, or while they changed, or while they waited for the girls out in the little lobby of the swimming-pool. But he didn't say anything to Reid at all, actually, so Reid knew he was _thinking_ about Tallulah even if he wouldn't say anything. He could read his friend's mind like a book even without the additional Power Lilah had unlocked.

* * *

It was a little annoying for Reid: He wasn't used to sharing Lilah. Now Tallulah had arrived and pretty much commandeered every single minute with her. They were sitting at the boys' regular table talking to Pogue and Caleb, who thought they were a classic double-act: Gertie and Daisy, some double-act from the thirties or something. At least, that's what Talli called them; Talli was Dirty Gertie, Lilah was Daisy. Reid bent and broke the triangle; he and Tyler were playing Aaron and Ryan as usual: 'That's trouble,' Caleb always said.

"Come on, dude, they're best-friends," Tyler shrugged, chalking his cue, his eyes on Talli. "You'd hate it if someone was hogging all _my_ attention." The tiniest hint of bitterness escaped in his words and Reid guessed, from a brief flash of insight inside Tyler's brain, his best-friend was jealous of Lilah for spending so much time with Reid. They _did_ spend a lot of time together, but he could hardly help it seeing as they lived in the same building. And he was completely infatuated with her… He was in lo—he cringed as he stopped himself even _thinking_ that stunning realisation.

He glanced over at the girls; they had disappeared, but Tyler's soft moan, and his pointed look over at the bar, told him where they'd gone: The girls were both leaning on the bar, the hems of their fluttery skirts just brushing their butt-cheeks. Reid's body responded by utterly relaxing as he sighed and placed a twenty on the felt.

"They're not wearing underwear," Reid bet. "Only suspenders." He knew his girlfriend too well; she never wore underwear on a night out. Hell, she never wore underwear anyway! She wore suspender-belts but that was it. And bras until noon.

Bowing their heads together, he and Tyler grinned as Reid's eyes flashed and a gust of wind—conveniently thought to be from the door opening at that moment, blew the girls' skirts up. The trick was aging, but it never got old. They both moaned at the show: They both had incredibly _fine_ asses, though Reid already knew Lilah did. Talli's suspender-belt was lilac-purple trimmed with black lace, two tiny little rosettes detailing it, connecting to black silk stockings, the seam pretty much making them take in her whole leg. The tiniest little tattoo adorned her left butt-cheek; a heart, like the one on Lilah's ankle. Lilah's suspender-belt was a tiny little red skirt, intricately embroidered, with little pink satin bows at the tops of the suspender-straps.

"Does that count as underwear?" Tyler asked hopefully. Reid shook his head, and they both looked away quickly as the girls gasped and pushed their skirts down, glancing around. Lilah's eyes flickered suspiciously over him. He put on his best innocent act—but that was all it was; an act, and she saw through that easily.

_You could've just asked_, she said reprovingly.

_Where's the fun in that?_

_Pig_.

_You love __me for my wily ways_.

_Don't flatter yourself!_ She giggled over the other side of the bar and turned with Talli to their table, carrying trays of greasy foods and drinks.

"I think there must be somethin' in the British water, man," Tyler said thoughtfully, watching the two girls.

"Hey, who's that chick with Lilah?" Aaron asked. The boys exchanged disgruntled looks.

"My girlfriend, Talli," Tyler said, and Reid pointedly didn't look up so he could disguise his shocked smirk as he sank another ball. _His 'girlfriend'_.

"Don't you actually have to _know_ a girl to have a girlfriend?" Ryan asked.

"Well, you don't seem to have a problem getting one," Reid said, glancing up. "So many magazines, so little time." When the game had ended—and Reid and Tyler collected their money—they walked over to the table and sat down with fresh drinks for the girls.

"By the way, you're now my girlfriend if that curly-haired guy in the Varsity-jacket comes over," Tyler said, and Talli giggled softly.

"Way to nip it in the bud, Tyler," Lilah grinned, smacking his palm. He grinned but flushed bashfully. Reid watched him all night; Talli didn't seem to leave his side. And when he talked, which was more often than usual, she hung on to every word with a hand draped around his waist or touching his chest or shoulder, laughing prettily. From this distance, at the jukebox with Lilah, he couldn't tell if they were just being really, really friendly as they tickled and poked each other in the sides mercilessly or if that was something special. It was for Tyler, at least. He'd clam up if anyone other than the guys or Lilah—not even Sarah—tried to tickle him.

"What do you think?" he asked, nodding at the two. Lilah's eyes slid over them and she smiled.

"Well, Tallulah keeps saying how sweet-looking he is," she smiled, arms linked around his neck. He held her waist and swayed with her to a slower song. _'Sweet-looking.' What the hell does that mean_?

"He's purty," Lilah said, fluttering her eyelashes and slurring the 't'.

"I'm gonna have to watch you, my girl, I can see that," Reid said thoughtfully, eyes roving over Lilah's face. With her best-friend now in Ipswich with her, it was like she had gained one-half of her body back. She wasn't afraid anymore, because she knew she now had something familiar to fall back on. He supposed that was the greatest bit of comfort she'd be receiving in a while, if her dad was so sick. She and Tallulah were like him and Tyler: inseparable, incorrigible, but sweet. Reid couldn't stay jealous at Tallulah very long, because Lilah always came back around to give him one of those lingering kisses.

* * *

**A.N.**: _PLEASE REVIEW_!!!!

* * *


	14. Fight

**A.N.**: I KNOW!!! You can send me flames if you want to for not updating in practically half a year, but I just lost where I wanted this to go and just found it again…

**A.N.2**: On another note, I've started a new fic called 'The Daughters of Ipswich' which is basically The Covenant except all genders are switched. I like it, anyway, and I'm debating whether to post a fic that has Tyler's twin-sister return to Ipswich the night Caleb (her ex) and Sarah flirt at Nicky's.

* * *

It was weird for Talli to see Lilah so…_happy_. Try as she might, Tallulah couldn't actually remember the last time Lilah had been so free-spirited. It had been a long time since she'd witnessed Lilah Using; she found out from Tyler, sitting at a table at Nicky's eating their way through burgers and chips, that Lilah had been Using just to taunt the kids who had been mildly bullying her—small things, like animating snooker-balls and tucking garments of clothing into underwear.

"And she lifted the curse off Reid's family-line," Tyler said quietly, munching on his French-fries. Talli glanced at him; he was, in her opinion, the _cutest_ of the Sons of Ipswich (Lilah had told her all about the boys' heritage) because Pogue was a pretty-boy, Reid was absolutely the most gorgeous, handsome boy she had ever met, and Caleb was, aside from taken, kind of dark and brooding. She liked a boy who knew how to party, and from the few times she had been hanging out with Tyler over the last week, he definitely had a wild side buried beneath his bashfulness.

Talli glanced sharply at Tyler. Lilah had _Used_? She had lifted a _curse_? Tallulah had always known Lilah was the most powerful witch (non gender-explicit) in their coven considering she was now the only surviving person in her generation of Leaders. But since the murder of her—well, Lilah had always been reserved about Using great stores of Power. Most times, Talli almost thought Lilah wished she was normal, like everyone else, so that she would have the comfort of knowing there had been _absolutely nothing_ she could do to prevent what had happened to…

"What do you mean?" she asked, glancing over at Lilah, where her best-friend sauntered over to her gorgeous boyfriend, offering one of the red trays of French-fries and Lilah's favourite, a grilled-cheese sandwich. Talli watched her set the tray down and Reid captured her best-friend's face in his long, clever fingers and Talli could practically see Lilah's knees going weak.

"She didn't tell you that already?" Tyler asked nervously. If there was one thing Talli knew about Tyler from the brief time they had spent together, other than him having an incurable sweet-tooth and a fetish for fun, it was that he was always second-guessing himself in his own intelligence and stuff like that. Being the youngest of all his friends, they kind of babied him, petted him. As such, he was incredibly sweet, the only guy Talli had ever met who smiled at her face and not her chest, which despite it being less attractive than Lilah's she showed off with low-cut tops anyway. Today she had gone for a more modest approach, mostly because Nicky's wasn't the kind of place that she could get away with wearing Yves Saint Laurent or Dior in: when Tyler and Reid had met them at Lilah's dorm-door, Tyler had smiled at her outfit; she wore a very simple lavender pin-tucked button-down shirt with a pair of relaxed jeans, a thin belt cinching the long tunic-style shirt at her waist, her hair loose and tousled in the style she and Lilah had long called 'recently-romped.'

"Tell me what, exactly?" Talli asked quietly, glancing at Lilah again.

"Um…well, we all know she's a witch," Tyler said quietly, glancing around and chewing nervously on his French-fries. "The guys; and Sarah. Reid said she's lifted some centuries-old curse on our families from his line." Talli sucked on her Diet Pepsi and glanced back at Lilah. Reid gave her another of those kisses that made _Talli's_ heart clench with yearning; he was so in love with her it was obvious to everyone around them. Everyone except Lilah, and Reid himself.

"She did that?" She could not think of a single person Lilah had ever Used for. She hadn't for Niko, and that was what had perpetuated Lilah's abstinence from Using in the first place. Now she was Using again and it was for a _boy_? In the two months Tallulah had been away, her best-friend had _changed_. Tallulah had to say, she was glad. She had been tired of Lilah always putting her talents on the back-burner to please her father; could the distance between parent and child also have something to do with Lilah Using again? There was no-one to check up on her, no-one to make her feel inferior about Using because of a tragedy two years ago, no-one to instil in then-sixteen-year-old Lilah that it was _her_ responsibility as the future Leader of their coven to set an example for everyone else.

"Why's that surprising?" Tyler asked. "She Uses all the time. Didn't she Use at home?"

"Not for a long time," Talli said quietly. Of all of their coven, Talli was notorious for Using much too extravagantly; she had gone through a phase just after Niko was…well, she'd started Using to steal designer clothing she could just as easily have charged to her mother's account, Used to trick boys into screwing her (not that she needed much help there) Used to punish the classmates who bullied Lilah after the nosedive she'd made from her usual feisty, racy, smart self to the girl who never spoke unless to an adult answering a question during lessons, wore black and never smiled. No one in their coven had suffered a loss like Lilah's and they didn't understand what she was going through; Talli was her one outlet, the only person she allowed to delve into her mind to see what utter turmoil was wreaked there.

Tallulah knew the very fine line that Lilah balanced on; Lilah wasn't mentally unstable or anything, but she was a teenaged girl who had witnessed things no person should ever see outside of a guerrilla war-zone, and though she usually appeared to be extremely mellow externally, when something set her off, Lilah could be self-destructive or murderous, depending on what had happened. Tallulah knew what set her off and everyone in their group of friends knew never to do or say specific things around her in case Lilah went off the deep end; it didn't take a lot to upset her.

Fighting was the biggest taboo in their coven.

The smash of glass alerted everyone to the jukebox: that good-looking but too-clean-cut Abercrombie bitch-boy who'd constantly been hitting on Talli all week had shoved Reid so hard against the jukebox that the glass panel had cracked behind him, and Aaron proceeded to sucker-punch him right in the gut and take a good swipe to Reid's jaw. Talli and Tyler both rose instinctively; Tyler swore, glancing around Talli supposed for Pogue and Caleb, both of whom had left an hour earlier.

Talli had to say it, though; Reid knew how to hold his own: He gave as good as he got and those slender, nimble fingers she guessed he put to good use on Lilah were stronger than they looked; one guy's nose was bloodied and another clutched his eye: as Reid and Aaron rolled around on the floor, hands at throats and other limbs doing their best to inflict as much pain on the other as they could while energised guys all around them egged them on and placed wagers. Nicky settled it, heaving Aaron in his crisp Abercrombie shirt and stylishly-distressed jeans off Reid, tossing him bodily out of the bar with a bellowed threat that he wasn't welcome back in the bar any longer; he'd started too many fights, "and you're lucky I don't call the cops!!"

She saw Lilah's expression, though, as her best-friend turned on her heel, after casting Reid a pale-lipped glower, and exited the bar in Aaron's wake. Tyler helped wheezing Reid off the floor and Talli sighed as she opened the door for them; it was better to leave now than incur the wrath of the proprietor of the bar and Talli _liked_ hanging out at Nicky's, even if it wasn't quite up-to-scratch with what she was used to.

"Lilah," Reid called, and Talli and Tyler both followed after him. Lilah poised by her car and Reid strode up to her, and in the dim lighting of the car-park Talli could see Reid's face had softened to the utmost tenderness as he rested his hands on Lilah's shoulders, gently working them up to cradle her face.

* * *

He whispered "I'm sorry" in her ear as he worked gentle, tender kisses from her cheekbone to her lips. She remained unfazed, her jaw set; she looked pale and her eyes were wide; she had blocked him from her thoughts. She was trembling all over; he could feel it even where he wasn't touching her. He glanced towards the door of the bar, where Tyler and Talli remained, outside the periphery of their private moment. He turned his back slightly on them and focused on Lilah's face; her lower-lip was trembling. He cradled her face and tenderly pressed his lips to hers. She barely responded.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again. "I shouldn't have scared you."

"You deliberately did something I asked you not to," Lilah choked out, tears smarting from her eyes.

"He called you a whore, Lilah," Reid said quietly.

"I've been called worse."

"Not in front of me, you haven't," Reid said adamantly, keeping his voice low so the others couldn't eavesdrop across the parking-lot. "I'm supposed to just let that go."

"He was only trying to get a rise out of you," Lilah said tremulously.

"Well it worked," Reid said heavily. "_He_ threw the first punch."

"And you sank to his level," Lilah sniffed.

"He wasn't gonna apologise to you," Reid said indignantly. If Aaron had apologised to Lilah like he'd asked, they wouldn't have had to fight; Aaron had thrown a punch instead. However she decided to look at it, Aaron had started their fight.

"And you won't stop fighting even though you _promised_ me," Lilah choked out, fresh tears smarting from her eyes. Her pretty mouth twisted with anguish and she brushed the tears roughly from her cheeks.

"It won't happen again," Reid swore softly, pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. God, he couldn't stop kissing her; he couldn't stop defending her honour, he couldn't stop thinking how much he hated the skirt she was wearing; the creamy silk top-half of the dress meshed with the floaty chiffon red and taupe camouflage bottom-half by way of a glittery gold waistband. He couldn't help thinking that he loved her even though she wore the new dress he hated so much.

"No, it won't," Lilah replied, her lip trembling again. She glanced into his eyes and tugged the plain silver ring he had given her last week, his _favourite_ plain silver ring that he always wore, off her slender finger. "I don't want to be your girlfriend if I have to wait around every night wondering if you're going to get yourself killed."

Reid stared at her, at the ring she was offering between her thumb and forefinger. Reid's entire body fell, not just his heart. His stomach plummeted somewhere nearer to Earth's core and he couldn't breathe. He stared at her, and at the ring.

"Lilah?" he gasped, letting his mouth hang open a little bit. Lilah's face twisted again and she took his hand; he clenched his fist, not letting her press the ring into his palm. Her eyes were glassy as she instead slipped the ring into the pocket of his jeans, sniffed, and slipped from between him and the Hummer, towards her Mini. "_Lilah!_" Her shoulders shuddered as she unlocked her door and she barked at Talli as the blonde programmed her number into Tyler's phone; the two Ts exchanged a wide-eyed look and Talli glanced at Reid as she hurried over to the car. "_LILAH_!!!"

The Mini swerved out of the parking-lot and onto Main Street. The gravel crunched underfoot as Tyler walked cautiously towards him, his eyes wide and doe-like, wary.

"What's happened?" he asked quietly. The combination of being sucker-punched in the stomach on top of a burger and fries, and the shock of Lilah breaking up with him sent him reeling, and he ran to the wall, heaving the contents of his stomach against the graffitied redbrick. Tyler's hands appeared on his shoulders, guiding him away from the pool of vomit at his feet. Reid whimpered, running a hand over his mouth and gasping; she had broken up with him.

He was _in love_ with her and she had _dumped_ him. Tyler didn't need telling what had happened when tears prickled painfully in Reid's eyes and his throat closed up, hot and burning, and he started shivering all over as if feverish. He guided Reid bodily over to the Hummer and helped him into the passenger seat, buckling him up and closing the door before Reid could slide out. He couldn't believe it. He shoved his hand into his pocket; no, it _had_ happened. Tears slid down his cheeks as he held the silver ring in his trembling palm.

Tyler didn't say anything as he climbed into the driver's seat, didn't say anything as they followed probably the same path the girls were taking back to the dorms were they all lived and where they would have to co-exist together for the next year.

* * *

"What the hell did you just do that for, Lilah?" Talli half-shrieked at her. Lilah's hands trembled on the steering-wheel as they sped through downtown Ipswich. "How could you do something like that without thinking about it first?"

"He wouldn't stop—" her lip trembled and she blinked furiously as her face felt hard and pained as it twisted in internal agony. Her eyelashes clumped together but the tears wouldn't fall just yet.

"Boys _fight_, Lilah," Talli almost shouted at her, and Lilah winced, closing her eyes for a few seconds. "You know this has absolutely _nothing_ to do with Reid."

"It does—"

"It does not! This is about _Niko_," Talli shouted. Lilah gasped hollowly, staring at her best-friend through bleary eyes. No one had said that name to her in two years, let alone brought it up in this context. "You know it and I know it. Reid _isn't Niko_, Lilah."

"He's doing the same exact thing Niko used to do and I'm not going to watch Reid get killed; I can't; I love him too much," Lilah burst into tears, her foot heavy on the accelerator, as their stomachs lurched and they crossed the bridge.

"Lilah, stop the—" The steering-wheel jerked out of her control and Lilah burst into tears before Talli pulled off an emergency-stop at the side of the road with her Power. She heard Talli tug the handbrake on and turn the keys in the ignition as Lilah sobbed uncontrollably, her eyes and throat hurting, her hair swinging around her face, her chest and stomach aching from her cries.

The familiar scent of Talli's Flowerbomb perfume enveloped her as much as Talli's arms did and Lilah gripped her best-friend's leather jacket as she cried into her shoulder. Why had she just done that? Why did she just break up with him? She loved him more than anything in the world. He was the one thing she would have stayed in America for and not flown the first commercial flight back to London to be with her dad.

The first boy she had ever fallen in love with.

"Okay…so, maybe you did the right thing," Talli whispered.

"Mm-hmm," Lilah choked, sniffling as tears leaked irritatingly down her cheeks. If she'd done the right thing, why did she feel like something had been ripped from her chest, leaving a great gaping, bleeding, raw and cauterised hole?

"God I hate that," Talli snapped irritably at herself. Lilah couldn't help smiling a little bit; she may be in love with Reid, Talli may love the fact that Lilah was in love with Reid, but she hated whenever Lilah was right about something, which was all the time. She sniffled and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her black cashmere jumper; Talli wiped the tears away from Lilah's cheeks and set her little mouth sympathetically.

"Feel like crying a little bit more?"

"No," Lilah said dully.

"D'you want to shout at me some more?" Talli asked, rubbing Lilah's back comfortingly.

"No," Lilah sighed.

"Do you want a pizza?" Talli asked lightly, and Lilah broke down again.

"_Yes_," she whimpered.

"Extra cheese?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Pepperoni?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Sausage?" She nodded.

"Anchovies?" Talli asked. Lilah inhaled quickly, setting her jaw.

"No man is worth anchovies," she declared throatily. Talli gave her a sympathetic watery-eyed smile and rumpled Lilah's glossy styled curls and sighed heavily.

"Alright, switch," she said, and they awkwardly managed to trade seats without kicking out a window or knocking the car into gear. Lilah belted herself into her seat and let her head hang as she started crying again; Talli fiddled with the iPod jack and set their 'break-up' Playlist on, beginning with Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart.' Singing loudly and crying her eyes out to Enrique's 'I Will Survive,' Lilah allowed Talli to drive them to the nearest Dominoes for two large pizzas, a two-gallon bottle of diet-Pepsi and mozzarella-sticks, and in Blockbuster Talli picked up a new copy of _Tristan and Isolde_ and another of Leo DiCaprio's _Romeo and Juliet_. Sniffling, Lilah flipped her visor down and blanched when she looked into the strap-on mirror she'd folded onto the visor; her smoky dark makeup had run halfway down her face and her nose had gone all red. She groaned and smacked the visor back up to the ceiling and started banging her head along to 'I'm Not Okay' by My Chemical Romance, the windows thrown open so she could light a cigarette stolen from Talli's bag—_She won't mind_.

_Reid_.

* * *

**A.N.**: I know *weeps* But it has to get worse before it gets better, as the saying goes! It _will_ get better, I promise. In a few chapters. Review _please_.

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